A few nice travel things from the latest Springwise newsletter...
The free rides one is particularly interesting - Chris 'Long Tail' Anderson's latest big idea is that 'free is the future of business'.
TW editor-in-chief Penny Wilson sent over this comment on Antigua's response to the murder of Catherine Mullany...
"Resorts and hotels in Antigua clammed up when Travel Weekly reporters asked them what their security arrangements were, following the shooting of a British honeymoon couple there this week.
I don't blame them, really. No doubt hospitality chiefs thought we were trying to pin the blame on them. Not true.
But I think what would really calm holidaymakers in Antigua right now is large and visible security presence surrounding them.
People feel reassured by a show of strength, even if they know a determined gangster will break through it if they really want to.
Witness airports such as Heathrow, for example, where visible security has increased tenfold and more since 9/11."
Okay, not really. This is a toy TW Blog's office neighbour - Celebs on Holiday author Nicki Rose - found at home.
Remember, your retro travel stuff could be bringing colour to the blogosphere. Pics to twblog@rbi.co.uk.
A 2,500 year old Greek ship - the largest and best-preserved of its kind - was raised off the coast of Gela, Sicily today. Here's a look at where it fits on the tourism map.
Gela itself is an oil refinery centre with little to attract tourists, but there's plenty in the wider region, notably Agrigento's celebrated Greek temples, about 40 miles west. (NB: Gela's the red pin).
There's a lively debate on Travel Rants about ABTA's Travel Convention taking place overseas (it is common for ABTA, ITT and AITO to hold conferences abroad).
I've pointed out that all registrations include a carbon offset premium, and Kevin at Travolution has commented that,
In my opinion, conferences are often hosted overseas to 1) get the delegate numbers 2) introduce travel companies to new products/regions 3) provide a positive environment for business to get done.
In addition to that, decamping to the UK for environmental reasons would be read as a tacit admission that flying is wrong.
Travel bodies won't want to be seen to think that - not least because they don't think it.
Some other issues that have come up:
Take a look, and/or let us know what you think below.
There were several major incidents abroad over the weekend, including bombs in Istanbul and India and forest fires on Rhodes.
Not all of these affected tourists, but they will fuel the debate over how operators communicate with holidaymakers who are caught up in, or are staying close to, incidents abroad.
The penetration of mobile devices makes SMS messaging an obvious solution (see our recent feature on new mobile services for travel companies) and technology providers like Travel Buddy are helping operators to send information direct to holidaymakers in resort.
With terrorism still high on the agenda and extreme weather events apparently on the rise, you can imagine SMS updates from operators becoming commonplace in the coming years. Is it something TW Blog readers want to see - and would you pay a premium for it?
Update - July 28, 11.15am: the FCO's Turkey page has been updated with details of yesterday's attacks, but says 'the overall level of [travel] advice has not changed'.
I'm just following the horrific bomb attacks in Istanbul this evening.
Turkey's government seems certain that it was a terrorist attack. The target was residential area Gungoren, which is well away from any tourists areas, so it seems likely this is the work of the PKK rather than any anti-Western group.
The FCO warns of a 'high threat from terrorism' in Turkey - but then London has a high risk from terrorism too, and the advice goes on to emphasise that travelling to Turkey is safe:
Around 1,920,000 British tourists visited Turkey in 2007. Most visits are trouble-free. The main types of incident for which British nationals required consular assistance in Turkey in 2007 were for replacing lost or stolen passports (over 340 cases)
The exception is the Mount Ararat area, which the FCO advises against non-essential travel to following the kidnap of three German nationals (now released) earlier this month.
We're are always writing about destinations in the travel blogosphere, and rightly so. But what would a tourist map of your own area look like?
Travel Weekly lives where London blurs into Surrey, so we have city attractions to the north and stately homes, parks and such to the south (and the same in Kent, off to the east).
I've picked out a few of the sights and attractions near TW Towers on a map (we're the red pin)...
It'd be great to see some other travel bloggers pick this up - so tagging Darren at Travel Rants, Kevin at Travolution, Guillaime at Hotel Blogs and the guys at Tracking Tourism.
The 10 Downing Street website has published a response to the petition asking for a new bank holiday to "to commemorate The Fallen and our Nation".
It's nine paragraphs long, but only one matters:
These proposals are being given careful consideration by the Government, alongside other representations we have received to institute a new 'British Day', and as part of these deliberations, we will of course examine the case for introducing a new public holiday.
Move along, folks. Nothing to see here.
With all the news of a resurgent UK holiday market, TW thought it time to look up some vintage UK holiday footage. Here we have a short film capturing 1950s Blackpool.
It was made by British Transport Films.
Check out the rides . . .
Martin Couzins, managing editor
Regarding today's passport strike, here are important bits about what's closed, what's open and who to contact.
More on the Identity and Passport Service site.
It isn't up to the trade to keep your passport up to date, of course, but part of me thinks travel trade bodies could benefit from throwing up some simple information in situations like this.
It's going to inspire 'passport strike advice' searches from concerned travellers - why not be the guy that search brings them to, and give them some brand-boosting useful information?
Is it me or does this picture of the new A380 statue at Heathrow make the aircraft look like it has had a very bad landing?
Martin Couzins, managing editor
Today marks the 50th anniversay of the death of Burton Holmes, who was using self-produced travel films in his popular lectures by the late 1890s, and invented the term 'travelogue'.
Holmes introduced film clips into his lecture series as early as 1897. He visited hovels and hotels all over the globe, traveled to every continent, to every country he could find (except Afghanistan); six times around the world, beginning at a time when airplanes had not yet been invented.
He went on to considerable success, and has his own star on Hollywood Boulevard. Here's a list of Holmes's proper films on IMDB, and a 1920s clip from Japan, courtesy of the Travel Film Archive's YouTube channel:
(Via the Metafilter travel tag page.)
I post this out of sheer curiosity: I've just upgraded my mobile phone to something with GPS and advanced media capabilities in the hope it'll be a good travel blogger's gadget.
Since you ask, yes it is the size of a modest fridge.
It will, if nothing else, help me get more out of location-based networks such as Brightkite (which you'll find me on as 'nath' - I have a limited number of invites, email me if interested).
Is anyone using a similar device, and has it been a help? If not, what gadgets do you find most useful when travelling and/or blogging?
The resorts of Laredo and Noja, in Spain's Cantabria region, are on the news agenda after ETA bombs exploded on beaches and golf courses - thankfully causing no serious injuries.
Here's where the towns lie in relation to Bilbao and Cantabria capital Santander (distances given as-the-crow-flies):
Broadly, they're family-friendly coastal resorts that offer something less hectic than the east coast, with lower temperatures. The big beaches are Noja's Ris and Laredo's La Salve.
The map includes the towns and some of the attractions that draw tourists to the wider region:
Laredo is also famous for Batalla de Flores (Spanish language site), a festival which sees flower-covered floats fill the streets on the last Friday in August.
Tripadvisor forum member Wellerman says of the area arund Noja:
Admittedly the weather is not as reliable as the south or the islands but if you want somewhere with fantastic beaches, and wonderful scenery away from the boring over populated costas then it's a great place... You would probably be best to hire a car as there are some brilliant places within driving distance
A while ago I wrote about the 'lipstick effect', the theory that rising sales of small luxury items are an indicator of trouble in the economy.
This week the Sunday Times ran an arts feature on the subject, pegging it on the launch of Mamma Mia - apparently ABBA's music is one little luxury that has always sold well in times of hardship (though not in my house).
Here are the travel-related stats and conclusions the ST pulls out:
The Travelodge point is interesting, but only half the story - we report today that the chain is to build 55 hotels in seaside locations such as Blackpool, Newquay and Bournemouth.
This suggests that Travelodge expects to see more leisure customers as well as business customers.
It also shows the brand investing in locations that are synonymous with the cheap'n'cheerful British holidays of old.
On the subject of indicators, see also the 'hemline indicator', which states that hemlines go down - as they are now doing - when the economy worsens.
To this we could perhaps add the 'indicator indicator', which states that the worse the economy gets, the more journalists will cast around for forgotten indicators to peg stories on...
The New York Times reports that Los Angeles hotelier Doug Manchester is facing calls for a boycott of his properties after he donated $125,000 to an anti-gay marriage campaign.
As far as issues go, it's a non-story - Manchester can support whatever legal cause he wishes, and his opponents can boycott whatever they wish.
But it does highlight the potential buying (and perhaps more importantly, blocking) power of niche groups, in which the consumer's use of tight-knit community and advice sites means word can spread quickly.
I'd be interested to know if readers boycott a brand - travel or otherwise - for any reason?
Not every travel nightmare ends in disaster. This week our agent columnist Maureen Hill writes about a client who had their belongings stolen in Venice, Italy...
A pickpocket made off with the couple's tickets, passports and English money ... The embassy agreed to stay open after their usual closing time of 12pm to issue our clients with emergency 24-hour passports ... Kirker did its bit and reissued tickets, while the Londra Palace supplied €200 to help our clients enjoy their last day (when they promised to reimburse the hotel they wouldn't hear of it).
That's right - the hotel gave them money.
The four-star hotel is situated (as the crow flies):
Here's the map:
Hotel Londra Palace gets an average 4.5 for service on Tripadvisor. Here are a few relevant comments:
The concierge was brilliant, advising us where to go, phoning restaurants to make bookings and having our keys ready when we returned without us having to say the room number [by Fivehoppers]
On our departure to the airport I managed to forget my shoes in the lobby ... staff actually called our water taxi to ask us where we would like them posted! They also made some very good recommendations on places to eat [by LondonCm1]
What really stood out for me was that, in a city where unsmiling rudeness is an art form, most of the staff were friendly and charming, and keen to do whatever they could to make our stay as pleasant as possible [by AreAnyNamesNotTaken]
Is US price comparison site Cheapflights.com doing what folks have long speculated metasearch sites would do, and making a big commitment to content? Specifically, community user-generated content?
Well, in as far as that it has set up its Flights and Travel Forum at all, yes.
But the news that it is using Ning hints at toes being dipped in the water (not that this is a criticism, since the usefulness of social networking in a metasearch context is unproven).
Ning's core network-building service is free. It then offers premium services for a monthly fee. By the looks of it Cheapflights.com has bought:
It seems to have left the custom URL option - $4.95pcm, plus the yearly cost of hiring a domain - on the shelf, sticking with the ungainly cheapflights.ning.com.
Based on that, we can speculate that the service itself is costing Cheapflights.com $334.80 a year.
Presumably there will have been a one-off design cost, plus ongoing resource costs associated with site monitoring, and we can't speculate about those; but my impression is that Cheapflights.com sees in Ning a low-cost way to try out UGC.
A few questions strike me:
Every year, groups of New Yorkers take to the streets to capture the sunset aligning perfectly with the east-west lines on the city's grid.
This year Manhattanhenge hit on May 29/30 and again on July 11/12 - I've dug up some embeddable photos from flickr.
by JSchumacher
by effingboring
by marf2010
The American Museum of Natural History explains:
Had Manhattan's grid been perfectly aligned with the geographic north-south line, then the days of Manhattanhenge would be the spring and autumn equinoxes. But its street grid is rotated 30 degrees east from geographic north, shifting the days of alignment elsewhere.
Any city crossed by a rectangular grid can identify days where the setting sun aligns with their streets. But beyond the grid you need a clear view to the horizon, as we have over New Jersey. So Manhattanhenge may just be a unique urban phenomenon.
Update: there's a Wikipedia page about Stonehenge replicas and derivatives around the world. Hat-tip to Triphow.
When business traveller Dubai resident Michelle Palmer isn't catapaulting Jumeirah Beach Park into the news by having sex on it, what can holidaymakers expect from it?
Opened in 1989, it's a 12-hectare area of park with a (usually) family-friendly beach attached.
You'll find it:
According to Virtual Tourist user Escadora7:
Somewhat outside the buzzing city-streets, Jumeirah seems to be moving at a slower pace. People are sunbathing, barbequing, or playing Volleyball and other beach-games; a little food-shack sells soft-drinks and snacks (hot-dogs, keebabs, etc.)
And that's seconded by Tripadvisor user shax:
My wife enjoyed our visit to the beach. it was not 'untidy and dirty' like some told us but very enjoyable. You are not disturbed in any way and can really get on with your holiday. There are open showers for those who wish to wash of and places to eat very nearby,
According to Dubai City guide you can expect to pay 5 dhs for access to the beach, and 20 dhs for parking.
Ladies' day is Saturday, but don't expect to see Palmer sunning herself there - she faces a jail sentence of between three months and six years...
Overheard: one side of a telephone conversation taking place on the news desk.
"We actually write for travel agents, so that isn't really the sort of thing we cover."
[Pause]
"Well... what kind of footwear are we talking about?"
The US National Hurricane Center's latest report has Hurricane Bertha about 350 miles off Bermuda.
Image: NASA Earth Observatory
Bermuda should see the worst of the storm on Saturday and Sunday - predictions say it will be closest in the early hours of Sunday morning, passing 153 nautical miles east-south-east of the island.
This doesn't mean Bermuda is safe - it is already being affected by 'large swells and high surf'. FCO advice is to 'monitor Bertha's progress closely and listen to advice from the local authorities'. Check weather.bm for updates.
Bertha is a category one hurricane, so it doesn't have the ferocity of Dean or Felix last season. But it has broken a record of its own: according to NASA's Earth Observatory, "no hurricane has ever formed so far east before August 1."
Rollercoaster fans: here's a preview of Manta, a ray-themed ride in development at SeaWorld Orlando...
Here are the details:
TW Blog was wiped out by the relatively tame Crush's Coaster in Disneyland Paris, so I went to Neil Buckley, our in-house adrenaline junkie up in sales, for a comment.
This looks awesome. Standing in the queue would be cool as you're looking at the rays thinking, in a minute I'm going to be riding on the back of a 12ft mechanical one.
Four loops is not a lot, but the bonus is the speeds that you are going at, and the fact that your car skims the water giving you a sense of gliding along the surface.
The only other coaster I've been on where you sit like this is Air at Alton Towers, which is my favourite - but with the added bonus of getting wet, or almost getting wet, people are gonna love that. Bring it on!
(And I've had to cut some, er, colourful expressions of enthusiasm out of that.)
If you're not of Neil's persuasion, you'll be able to look round the aquarium without going on the ride, which is a nice touch. It's due to open in summer 2009.
Dubai is a fun and exciting destination. As with many destinations around the world, the abuse of alcohol in public spaces is not tolerated and in this respect Dubai is no different.We want everyone to enjoy their time in Dubai, and as such people are expected to behave responsibly and respect the culture, traditions and local laws of the emirate.
Lesson to travellers: understand and respect the local laws of the destination.
Here is the FCO advice.
Genius.
I was up at London Cruise Terminal in Tilbury, Essex today to visit Transocean ship Marco Polo, and ended up interested in a site whose first impressions are a little underwhelming.
It's also convenient for Transocean's passengers, who are generally a sedate, 55-60 and above crowd. They can do without negotiating big, busy terminals with piles of luggage (and if you're not an initiate, note that negligible restrictions mean cruisers tend to pack more than air travellers).
UK cruises
It was also interesting to hear that one of Marco Polo's most popular itineraries is a Tilbury-Tilbury round UK cruise - passengers for which come almost exclusively from the terminal's south-and-east catchment area.
Jane Archer, who writes our Cruise Lines blog and accompanied me around Marco Polo (watch her video review on Travel Weekly) pointed me to a cruisecritic.com article that suggests Transocean rivals Fred Olsen and Voyages of Discovery are seeing a similar demand for UK cruising.
What do we make of it? A growing desire to see more of the UK? Disinclination to go abroad becuase of the weak pound and iffy economic lookout? Or just an appealing price point?
Good to see a travel company doing something positive on surcharging. In a limited offer, Sandals will pay all fuel surchages and taxes on holidays of 14 nights or more booked before August 15, for travel between September 1 and December 20.
Martin Couzins, managing editor
Travel Weekly's Edward Robertson was recently interviewed by NBC about the growth in the stag and hen party market. Here's the footage.
Martin Couzins, managing editor
Another survey looking at the impact of the credit crunch on travel.
This survey by Legal and General shows one in four adults have changed their holiday plans as a result of tougher economic conditions.
Martin Couzins, managing editor
Attended a House of Commons reception last night held by Beta - the British Educational Travel Association.
Beta represents suppliers to the educational travel sector - a sector that includes cultural exchanges, working holidays, language education, backpacking, volunteering etc.
The event highlighted both the scale and impact of this part of the travel market. Projections suggests that by 2020 there will be up to 850,000 international students in higher education in the UK (there are currently around 300,000).
And according to the Office of National Statistics, in 2006 visitors to the UK to study, spent an average of £1742 per visit, and stayed longer, compared with just £527 for business travellers and £470 for general holiday visitors.
In the same year, 16 to 34 year-old visitors spent an average of £565 per visit, much more than 35 to 54 year-olds at under £500.
Interesting survey from the Chartered Institute of Management about managers' attitudes to holidaying. Highlights include:
According to the Guardian, yesterday Spanish tourist board Turespaña predicted that the weak pound and economic downturn would hit classic packages and 14-day holidays, leaving Spain in a bit of a pickle.
Instead, destinations such as Egypt and Turkey which can offer more competitive holidays will draw the tourists away from Spain.
Well, guess what? Spain has just been knocked off the top of Co-operative Travel's lates market sales charts by none other than... Turkey.
Director of retail distribution Trevor Davis said the strength of the euro against the pound and capacity cuts to Spain following consolidation of the big four, which has led to a lack of available low-price late Spanish breaks, were the key reasons for the change
With a British Chambers of Commerce report indicating we could be headed for full-blown recession, one wonders what the UK's summer holiday league tables will look like in a few years' time...
A heads-up for TW Blog's travel agent and operator readers - we're running a survey on ABTA's subscription fee hike. It's only ten questions, and you don't have to be an ABTA member.
(Non-trade readers: there's a poll for you at the bottom of this post.)
Hit the link to launch the survey in a new window.
If anyone took it yesterday, I've tweaked it a bit since then, making the free-text questions optional. I noticed the non-completion rate was a bit too high.
...and here's a quick poll to see what, if anything, other readers think:
The tropical storm Bertha became a category one hurricane today, making it the first hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic season.
As you can see, this US National Hurricane Center chart (produced July 7) shows Bertha directly over Bermuda by Saturday - but bear in mind this is a five-day forecast and Bertha is still only category one.
If current trends continue, the Caribbean will be in for a difficult few months. Remember the 2007 season was the first time two Atlantic category five storms (Dean and Felix) made landfall in the same season. Let's hope this year brings a lull.
Bosses at Cardiff International Airport are searching for a new name for the airport. They are hoping to come up with a name that will help dramatically increase visitor numbers - in the way that Speke Airport in Liverpool benefitted from renaming itself after John Lennon (doubled visitor numbers).
In the mix are Catherine Zeta Jones, Dame Shirley Bassey and Gavin and Stacey, according to the Metro newspaper.
With this range of 'options' for Cardiff, I am beginning to wonder whether the naming of airports after celebrities is something that should be encouraged . . .
Martin Couzins, managing editor
Oh... you mean the stuff in the minibar? Thanks for the tip.
The bikini is 62 years old tomorrow. The reasoning behind the name of the two-piece swimwear made me laugh.
According to the official version, the modern bikini was invented by French engineer Louis Réard and fashion designer Jacques Heim in Paris in 1946 and introduced on July 5[2] at a fashion show at Piscine Molitor in Paris.[3] It was a string bikini with a g-string back. It was named after Bikini Atoll, the site of a nuclear weapon test called Operation Crossroads on July 1 in the Marshall Islands, on the reasoning that the burst of excitement it would cause would be like the nuclear device.
Photo credit: Cora
Martin Couzins, managing editor
TW features reporter Janine Kelso was at the USA ball last night . . .
Travel Weekly was a guest at last night's annual USA ball, a glittering event held at The Dorchester on Park Lane.
A thank you speech was made before dinner by Peter Moss, director of sales Europe and Asia for Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau.
TW was reliably informed that Peter Moss, an important travel industry figure, was none other than supermodel Kate Moss' dad.
Other highlights of the night included a jazz band, a team of American football players and a girlband who belted out classics such as Chaka Khan's Ain't Nobody to get everyone shaking their booty.
Fort Lauderdale's charismatic Alfredo Gonzalez said he reckoned he was the only visitor from the States at last year's bash. But he definitely wasn't the only yank this year with several Americans making it across the pond for the event, including Jesse Davis from Las Vegas, who brought a touch of neon with him in the form of flashing Vegas badges for everyone to wear.
Literally, 'salt warehouse' - that's what this 200 year old building was. It's on the edge of the old town, reached down a small alley that turns into an attractive decked area with a few tables. There was a chap with a guitar sounding rather like Seu Jorge when I ate there.
Inside it's all bare stone and exposed beams. A distressed steel panel forms the front of the bar which runs down one side of the room.
As for the food, Armazem do Sal's tuna carpaccio made want to cry. Grilled pork and a chocolate pudding were excellent, but I was still reeling from the starter. It's modern Mediterranean-via-Spain fare, so no big surprises no the menu but all executed beautifully.
AdS is very popular with locals, but it's an upmarket restaurant, so expect upmarket prices.
The 'risottoria del mundo' is devoted to rice with monomaniacal intensity. Even the salads come with little puffed grains flavoured with cumin (which is slightly unfortunate, as the latter had an unpleasant stale texture).
There's a trendy, minimal space indoors, and a terrace overlooking the Atlantic and the local lido. Expect imaginative variations on the risotto, and some Portugese rice dishes
I had octopus with spring green 'wet rice' - the octopus was great, but the rice wasn't terribly exciting. Other diners had proper risottos, which went down universally well.
The price point is lower than Armazem do Sal, but again this won't be a cheap meal.
A modish bar with a terrace out front and large outdoor space to the side.
DJs play in the evening, and although there were door police in evidence we walked straight in despite not being remotely cool (see mugshot at top right).
Map
It's been a busy day and the clouds are gathering, so I'm glad I did a bit of surfing and found this quote in a post about exploring America:
I once went to a festival in a small town in Nebraska where you paid a dollar to bet which numbered 'square' a cow was going to sh** on - kind of like sh** bingo.
And that's what you want out of travel - something to share with the grandchildren. Thankyou, Indie Travel Podcast...
This comes from an Institute of Travel and Tourism survey into travel and climate change - it's our lead story today:
The first stat I don't condone but can partly understand: there's always the question of whether the government or industry leaders should take the lead, and many feel travel shoulders a disproportionate amount of blame for environmental problems.
But the second? Nigh-on half the people surveyed don't think travel businesses will be affected?
We'll see. Ian Taylor spoke to World Meteorological Organization head Michel Jarraud for an analysis piece on the issue, and here's what he had to say:
Disturbances to the global climate system are everywhere... hurricanes, floods and persistent droughts. [Tourism will face] increased risks: variations in rainfall, wind and temperatures, sea-level rise, reduced snowfall, increased frequency of heatwaves.
Nothing much to worry about, then.
Check out the Whiz Freedom which according to the manufacturer is "the world's first antibacterial and hydrophobic urine director". The video says more than words can describe . . .
Martin Couzins, managing editor
There's a feature on fam trip etiquette going in Travel Weekly this week, to which I can add my own tip: when a hotel rep at Cliff Bay in Funchal shows you the sea view from a new top-floor room class, don't comment on the great view of iconic rival Reid's Palace. And definitely don't take a photo.
Oops. My bad.
The rep didn't really mind, of course, and Cliff Bay is a fine property in its own right.
It's a spa and sun-deck kind of place, so doesn't have the character you'd get in a quinta, but spa and sun-deck properties are great for the wealthy, often slightly older couples that come back to Madeira year after year.
Cliff Bay's two sun decks are particularly impressive: the upper has an indoor-outdoor pool that runs into the spa area, while the lower (a long way down, and reached by lift) has a saltwater pool, a restaurant-bar and access to the ocean.
There are 40 of the new rooms we were shown - their configuration is much the same as standard rooms, but they include superior decor, in-room interweb access, a pillow menu and breakfast in the a la carte restaurant.
It's a good seller for Inghams, apparently, but I was interested to hear that their most popular property is Quinta Bela Sao Tiago, where the focus is on character - it's in Funchal's old town, so there's no ocean access, and the pool/spa facilities are less extensive than at Cliff Bay.
But in the words of Pierre from Inghams, it's a property that 'presents well'. The terrace and gardens in particular are beautiful - there's actually a small banana plantation guests can wander through. Put next to Cliff Bay, it gives you a good sense of the range of hotel product available here.
While I was out in Madeira I shot a quick walkthrough of my suite at the Classic Savoy in Funchal. Apologies for the not-fantastic quality - all I had was the movie function on my stills camera.
The hotel has been there since the early 1900s (though not in exactly its current form) and even if it occasionally it shows its age - the knob on my radio simply fell off when I went to use it - retains a good deal of character.
And if you do start hankering for the comforts of modernity, guests are free to use the facilities at the new Savoy Royal, connected to the classic by a footbridge.
