Harvard….M.I.T…Red Sox….Celtics….just a few of the unbelievable attractions that the city of Boston has to offer, and with a city so steeped in tradition and history, the best way to taste the icing on the cake is by staying at the Four Seasons Hotel Boston.
This chic, elegant hotel with a contemporary décor is located in the heart of the city, Boston’s Back Bay, offering close proximity to the amazing historical and cultural attractions, and overlooking the stunning Public Garden. Shoppers will also rejoice in the proximity to Newbury Street, offering world-class shops just outside the front door.
While most of the city is within walking distance, if you want to rest your feet the Four Seasons Hotel Boston offers a complimentary town car service that will take you to any of the nearby attractions, as well as a 24-hour multilingual concierge. Parlez-vous Francais?
As Boston is known for it’s seafood, you don’t need to look any further than the hotel’s restaurant The Bristol Lounge, which offers innovative regional cuisine that will tempt you to keep ordering. Once you have had enough “clam chowder,” the Lounge itself is an amazing place to sit back and enjoy a cocktail or afternoon tea in front of the massive fireplace and floor-to-ceiling windows looking out onto the Public Gardens.
After a day of the Freedom Trail, checking out Paul Revere’s house, a ride on a Boston Pedi-cab and more clam chowder, relax at the sauna or take a swim in the 44-foot long swimming pool, a perfect place to end the day. Of course you never have to worry about time to work out, as the state-of-the-art fitness center is open 24-hours. If a run outside is your preference, the Four Seasons will supply you with trail maps, and upon your return you will be greeted with towels and bottled water.
In a city brimming with history and tradition, you need a hotel that offers impeccable service and exquisite atmosphere. What are you waiting for? Welcome to the Four Seasons Hotel Boston.
If you’re going to visit the Windy City, it only makes sense that you would get blown away. And no destination in Chicago will leave you as breathless as the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago.
Discreetly tucked away on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Delaware, just steps from the world-class shopping thoroughfare known as the Magnificent Mile, Four Seasons Hotel Chicago combines impeccable service, stunning décor and the highest standards, all in the ultimate urban location.
Whether you are in town for business or pleasure, the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago offers the quintessential home away from home, surrounded by business and financial centers and all the fabulous sites and attractions Chicago has to offer. Take a stroll to the Museum of Contemporary Art around the corner, window shop on world famous Michigan Avenue, then bop over to Millennium Park to see “The Bean,” as locals call the stunning, enormous sculpture properly known as Cloud Gate.
After a day of running around, head back to your urban oasis so you can pamper yourself in the spa and rejuvenate in the relaxing lounge, and if you need more exercise, work up a sweat at the extensive fitness center with state-of-the-art equipment.
Traveling with your kids? Well, the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago will make them feel right at home with a welcome amenity, bath robes that actually fit, and you can reserve the hotel’s very own Storyteller, who arrives with a selection of books on a silver tray and reads to your enthralled youngsters.
In recent years, Chicago has become known as a premiere gourmet destination, and the Four Seasons adds to that scene with the new Allium. Boasting a chic urban atmosphere and inviting tones, the menu features farm-to-table cuisine and vegetables from the hotels own rooftop garden.
For location, luxury and lush surroundings, next time you are in Chicago make the Four Seasons your mansion in the sky.
We’re entering a new age in luxury hotel marketing. Top-tier hotels are now using Twitter for concierge services, social geo-locating platforms to unlock free gifts, Facebook for customer service and YouTube to showcase unique properties. They are finding new, large and responsive audiences across the social web. No doubt, luxury travel’s latest destination is online.
Yet who is leading the charge in this recent wave of innovative hotel social media strategies? What are their methods and how are they finding success? In our ongoing series “Luxury Hotels & Social Media,” Pursuitist is interviewing the top luxe hotel leaders (The Peninsula, Ritz-Carlton, Waldorf Astoria and many more) to gain insight into the online strategies of the industry’s elite.
Q. Why is Social Media important for your company?
A. At Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, we believe the winners in this new digital age will be the brands that let their fans define it and syndicate it. We’ve always been a consumer-centric culture, so the shift to adopting the way guests and clients lead communications for Four Seasons has been rapid. Digital media is now 50% of our brand’s marketing efforts, with a strong social media presence that facilitates engagement and encourages loyalty.
Four Seasons has quickly and strategically grown its base of Twitter followers and Facebook fans, receiving accolades within the industry. As Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts continues to incorporate social media into its day-to-day business, the company sees real time interactions as a natural extension of its service model. Working closely with our properties to embrace this evolution, our unique approach has allowed a centre-led global strategy to be localized in meaningful and relevant ways at the hotel level around the world.
From virtual wine tastings on Twitter to a vibrant Facebook presence awash with visitor images and timely conversations, to active participation in location-based apps such as Foursquare and Gowalla, to highly curated content on YouTube, which is fast becoming the world’s second most important search engine, Four Seasons has its finger solidly on the pulse of the modern traveler.
Q. How many people manage your social media channels & what types of tools do you use?
A. Four Seasons has a team that manages and uses the following digital tools:
• Facebook: Four Seasons recently enhanced its Facebook presence with new tools and a refreshed design to provide visitors with compelling content such as exclusive promotions for dining, spa and other services and interactive touch points like a contest on Flickr for the best travel photo. Between its corporate and individual hotel presence, containing nearly 90 local pages, Four Seasons’ Facebook fans total more than 223,305, and are growing daily.
• YouTube: Four Seasons develops highly curated content for YouTube. Examples include world-class surfing videos from its property in the Maldives at Kuda Huraa, best sights to explore at Four Seasons Hotel Marrakech and tours of theatres and pubs in Dublin.
• Twitter: Four Seasons was among the first luxury hotel brand to launch a corporate Twitter account, building its follower base by more than 80 percent since August of 2010. Between the corporate and nearly 90 individual hotel streams, we now have more than 185,900 followers. Four Seasons also participates in Twitter chats including, #luxchat, #FriFotos, and #TTOT.
• Location-based Services: Four Seasons the first luxury hotel brands to leverage location-based mobile and web services, such as Gowalla and Foursquare: when guests checked into Four Seasons properties during the “Best of California” promotion, they received “best of” trip recommendations. When guests “checked in with Gowalla at three or more “spot” recommendations, they received a spa or dining credit.
• Tumblr: Four Seasons the first luxury hotel brand to have a Tumblr presence (www.fourseasonsspas.tumblr.com). Here, spa images, posts and more using the #FSspa hashtag were aggregated around the world.
• Blogs & Microsites: Four Seasons launched its Have Family Will Travel blog (www.family.fourseasons.com) featuring real stories from customers traveling with kids. The site features kid-friendly recipe and arts and crafts ideas, and links to related blogs. The Four Seasons Foodies site (www.fourseasonsfoodies.com), featuring world-renowned chefs blogging about everything from how to make a white chocolate carrot cake to how to cut the perfect holiday turkey. The “Foodies Around the World” section celebrates the unique cuisine, fine wine and exotic mixology at Four Seasons hotels and resorts around the globe, with recipes and wine and cocktail suggestions.
• Google+: Four Seasons has established a presence on Google+ to leverage its unique capabilities and features.
• Weibo: Four Seasons has an active presence on Weibo, China’s most popular social network, with more than 250 million users, and has launched an online magazine site there.
• Four Seasons Magazine: Four Seasons Magazine launched a new site in December 2011, a true new digital luxury travel experience where guests can explore all their favourite destinations and discover someplace new.
Q. What has been the most effective content to engage users?
A. We strive to serve up content that is interesting and relevant, and our increasing ‘return on engagement’ is a true testament to that. The most effective content is our multimedia content. On YouTube, our video views total 280,000, 30% higher from this time last year. This content allows consumers to get a first look at our properties and better understand the Four Seasons experience.
Diamonds thrown across sculpted folds of azure velvet, the Maldives, off India’s southwest coast, have enchanted visitors since the days of Sinbad. A delicate chain of 1,190 coral atolls fringed with dazzlingly white sand, time passes by tide and swell here. It is a fool’s game to choose the best or the brightest of them all, but Kuda Huraa – site of one of the most exclusive Four Seasons resorts on the planet – is a safe bet.
At Kuda Huraa, the Four Seasons, already synonymous with rarified luxury, created the very image of a private tropical island paradise. A short speedboat ride from the capital of Malé, guests find themselves a world away from “busy” among the palms and fronds of the isle. Thatched beach pavilions and bungalows, made in the traditional Maldivian style by local artisans, sprout peacefully amid island foliage, and languidly rise from stilts overlooking the crystalline waters of the shallow lagoon.
Of these, the 2,756-square-foot Royal Beach Villa offers the most lavish of accommodations: Set within a secluded tropical garden, guests are treated to pure sumptuousness. The surrounding outdoors include a sundeck, infinity-edge pool and shaded “bale” (traditional thatched hut) and “undholi” (traditional wooden swing). Within, large windows in the living and sleeping spaces allow for the full glory of the Maldivian sunshine and views of the ocean and lagoon. Air-conditioned throughout its entirety, each bedroom has a dressing room with ample closet space, and a full bathroom with a double vanity, deep soaking tub with courtyard views and access to a private walled courtyard with an exotic garden shower. The master bathroom courtyard also has its own outdoor whirlpool. A plush sofa and luxurious armchairs, a separate dining area, a plasma-screen television, a full stereo system, a DVD/CD player and an espresso machine round out the experience.
Sharp-eyed guests will note a small islet off to the west of Kuda Huraa, and will soon find it one of the most desirous of the resort’s locales. Reachable by “dhoni” (a traditional Maldivian boat), this is the Island Spa, an even more removed retreat for the weary traveler. Under the skilled hands of Kuda Huraa’s therapists, guests are soothed with natural treatments, complemented by the restorative power of marine-based nutrients, in over-water pavilions open to the ocean breeze. Therapies are even synchronized with the phases of the moon: reflection during the moonless nights, nourishment with the waxing moon, harmony with the full moon, and, when on the wane, release.
And if one can pry themselves away from such a lap of luxury, one of the wonders of nature awaits in the turquoise waters beyond. Diving abounds at Kuda Huraa, and at Hanifaru Bay – mere minutes away – where one can dive into what becomes an aqueous ballet from May to October as swarms of manta rays and whale sharks come to feed. Resident marine biologists are on hand to explain these gentle giants in their seasonal ritual.
With Kuda Huraa having won the Conde Nast Traveler 14th annual Readers’ Travel Awards: The Best of the Best in the World’s Top 100 (after being named Best Overseas Leisure Hotel in the Middle East, Africa & Indian Ocean), the Four Seasons is firmly entrenched in the upper echelons of premier international luxury. But one could very well forego the accolades and press, and simply contemplate a little island in the middle of an aquamarine sea, with warm breezes and friendly smiles. Such is what makes a resort a paradise.
A look back at the 2011 Best Travel Destinations and Stories from Pursuitist.com. As a curated list of the good things in life, we’ve hand-selected our top travel stories and reviews. The below destinations are “Pursuitist Recommended” – here are the best-of-the best resorts, hotels and luxury travel destinations for the past year. What was your favorite travel destination for 2011? Talk back and comment below!
Paul Carr’s Hotel Bucket List
The former TechCrunch and Guardian writer answers the question “Where would you stay if you had one hotel night left on earth?”
Conrad Koh Samui Resort & Spa, Thailand
A sneak preview of the brand-new and ultra-luxurious Conrad Koh Samui, a true tropical paradise full of beaches, coral reefs and amazing views.
Top 5 Views in Shanghai
Erica Swallow (Mashable) shares five views you won’t want to miss on your next trip to Shanghai.
New York City with Kids
The Parent’s Guide to a luxe experience in the Big Apple and the Four Seasons New York.
Lausanne’s Beau Rivage Palace
Writer Gretchen Kelly (NY Post) visits Coco Chanel’s favorite lakeside hotel — and discovers a Coco secret that’s buried here.
Ojai Valley Inn & Spa, California
Shandana A. Durrani (Condé Nast Traveler) visits a historic property 35 miles south of Santa Barbara that is the perfect spot for a pleasing respite.
Post Cards from Paris
Journalist Vilte S. Holstad’s weekly destinations, parties and culinary adventures in The City of Light.
Inside Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, Pudong
Condé Nast Traveler has named the Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, Pudong as the best hotel in the world in its annual Readers’ Choice survey.
Christopher Parr, CEO and Editor of Pursuitist, is an award-winning luxury marketing veteran, writer, a frequent speaker at luxury and interactive marketing conferences and a pioneer in web publishing. He launched Pursuitist as a curated list of the good things in life, with guest contributors sharing their favorite luxuries.
This review was co-written by Christopher and his wife, Alison.
Sure we all love a beach vacation or a tranquil desert spa the rest of the year. But at Christmas time you don’t want to see twinkle lights in palm trees or Santa in surfer shorts. You want chill in the air, you want a chance of snow, and you want a hot cocoa to warm your fingers while you window shop. You want to visit Chicago.
The Ritz-Carlton Chicago, a Four Seasons hotel, is a warm and welcoming holiday home-away-from-home for your family’s visit to the Windy City. The unbeatable location and signature service assure your family a comfortable and relaxing stay.
Our family recently enjoyed a lovely post-Thanksgiving weekend in this outstanding hotel and found it to be the perfect kick-off to the Christmas season.
The lobby of the Ritz-Carlton Chicago has always been a family favorite, with its dramatic fountain, nature inspired wall reliefs and bright wall of city-view windows. So we were excited to see how the elegant space would express itself for the holidays. We were pleased to find a towering Christmas tree accented, much to our daughters’ delight, with the signature little red bags from American Girl Place, their personal favorite Chicago landmark. Charming gingerbread houses and tasteful holiday décor enhanced the welcoming atmosphere.
The lobby also plays home to the newly enlarged and reimagined dining area, Deca. We ate a dinner and breakfast at the Deca Restaurant. The children’s menu ranges from pb and j to filet mignon and doubles as a take-home coloring book. It goes without saying that the service and food were spot on. The Deca Bar is also a perfect perch for a snack and a few Shirley Temples. The deep couches and wall of windows make it a good spot for a family recharge.
Before we even made it up to our room after checking in, we stopped in at the Deca host’s stand for the first event of our stay. We had made reservations at a table behind the scenes, in the kitchen with the pastry chefs! The cookie-decorating tour is available everyday at 4:00. The girls learned chef’s tips for rolling out and cutting their own sugar cookies, which were baked to perfection and later delivered to the room with frosting and sprinkles, ready for decorating. What a hit!
When making your reservation, consider requesting the Happy Camper service. Our girls enjoyed hiding out in the tent that was pitched for them and snacking on the chocolate and graham cracker covered marshmallows. But it was the much anticipated visit from the Candy Man that truly set them twirling. The Candy Man (actually a charming young woman) arrived at our door with a fully stocked candy store on a pushcart! She enlighten our daughters on the personality traits that their candy selections revealed and left them tickled pink with their fat little sacks of gummy snakes and chocolates.
While the rooms are elegant and the views are stunning, eventually you may choose to leave the hotel. If a little holiday shopping is your plan, you are in the perfect place to set out on the retail wonderland that is Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. But even better, leave your coat in your room and simply take the elevator down to the shops of the Water Tower Place. The most beloved of these stores, for our girls is (of course) the American Girl Place. Half mega doll store, half schoolgirl mecca, this enormous space caters to the dreams of girls and the heartstrings of their parents. It is hard to resist the allure of the wholesome, history-rich adventures that American Girl offers. While our 7 year old savored the character dioramas and delighted in finding new mystery books starring her treasured “Kit,” our 4 year old was very pleased to select a tiny ballet costume for her well-worn “Bitty Baby.” We also enjoyed brunch at the in-store restaurant, complete with table-side accommodations for dolls. The dessert, served in tiny flowerpots and planted with a take-home daisy, was the favorite.
Upon returning to our room, the girls were thrilled to find a platter of tiny cupcakes and a bouquet of balloons awaiting them. Sneaky daddy and the ever-helpful staff had conspired on one more over-the-top gesture. It soon turned into a Bitty Baby birthday party. Surprise!
Be sure to balance out the kiddie-centric activities by planning a few grown-up treats as well. The hotel spa is an onsite haven and the pool is perfect for swimming laps. The hotel babysitting service is always superb. The friendly, responsible, capable staff has always made us completely at ease. We used our night out to try the recently opened Pump Room for dinner. The calm, elegant dining room and warm staff made it the perfect complement to a morning of American Girl high energy.
We finished our Chicago visit with a few hours of happy wandering in the Art Institute. Where the girls visited some old friends, Seurat’s Sunday park goers, Degas ballerinas and marveled at the dreamy glow of Chagall’s America Windows. The small, but fascinating, collection of Ancient Egyptian items is always a kid pleaser.
With a chilly dash to the car and a last wave goodbye to the grand lions who flank the museum’s main entrance we wrapped up our Chicago holiday visit. We returned home in the perfect mindset to begin our family’s holiday preparations. Bring on the Christmas baking, I’ve got two Four Seasons trained pastry chefs in my kitchen!
Four Seasons has announced a new in-room menu designed for travelers who are tight for time. The speedy option guarantees room service delivery to the room within 15 minutes of ordering. The fast food service will be rolled out across all Four Seasons hotels by the end of the year, with each hotel offering a different twist on rapid cooking.
“Whether needing to quickly replenish after a workout or wanting to toast the perfect sunset, 15-Minute Room Service provides quick and delicious meals for those who want it right away,” says Christopher Hunsberger, executive vice president, global product and innovation at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. “It’s also ideal for those who are on the go. Ideally, every meal would be enjoyed at leisure, but at times we really just need to grab a bite quickly – and there’s no reason that it can’t be freshly-made with quality ingredients, and entirely delicious.”
Each Four Seasons has created its own gourmet menu based on local tastes and ingredients. Examples of the menus include wonton noodle soup with Chinese greens from the Four Seasons Hong Kong.
Traditional ploughman’s lunch and English-style nachos with Winchester cheese and chive crème fraiche can be ordered at the Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire.
Some meal choices are available “to go,” are airline security-friendly, and can be delivered to the front drive as guests jump in a car on the way to catch a flight.
For example, Four Seasons Resorts Scottsdale at Troon North offers a “portable lunch” comprising “a tequila-lime chicken wrap with slaw, kettle chips, iced tea and a chocolate chip cookie”.
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts kicked off construction of its luxury resort at Walt Disney World Resort this week in a groundbreaking ceremony with joint venture partners Silverstein Properties and Dune Real Estate Partners. The 444-room resort, being built in the enclave of Golden Oak at Walt Disney World Resort, will create about 2,000 construction jobs, and hundreds of resort positions when open.
“Travellers around the world know and trust Four Seasons, and Walt Disney World is the world’s premiere family vacation destination,” said Meg Crofton, president Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Operations US & France. “Together, our two companies offer a brand-new reason to visit and experience Central Florida.”
With an opening anticipated in 2014, Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort will feature several dining venues including a rooftop restaurant with Magic Kingdom views; a 14,000 square foot (1,300 square metre) spa; fitness centre; three pools and a “lazy river”; sports and recreational facilities; meeting and event space plus a business centre.
Kathleen Taylor, president and CEO of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, spoke of the relationship with Disney: “Each of us is dedicated to creating a product of the highest quality and standards, something that will become a landmark here in Orlando, and a destination unto itself for travellers from all over the world. It is truly a one-of-a-kind project and Central Florida will be a valuable addition to our family of resorts, particularly since this is a destination our guests already enjoy.”
The development will encompass the existing Tom Fazio-designed Osprey Ridge 18-hole championship golf course, which will be renovated and subsequently managed by Four Seasons. The first Four Seasons in Central Florida is located within the Golden Oak residential community at Walt Disney World Resort.
Larry Silverstein, president and CEO of Silverstein Properties, recalled making the decision to back the project. “At the end of the day, it became apparent that the concept was right; that the team superb; the location first class and the two names – Four Seasons and Disney – as good as you can get.”
Condé Nast Traveler has named the Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, Pudong as the best hotel in the world in its annual Readers’ Choice survey.
The magazine announced the results ahead of the November issue and revealed the Shanghai hotel’s victory ahead of Peninsula House in the Dominican Republic, which won second place
The Four Seasons Sharm El Sheikh won third place, while the Safari Lodges at Phinda Private Game Reserve in South Africa came in fourth.
The Readers’ Choice Awards are among the most comprehensive in the travel calendar, recognizing over 1,200 winners across various categories as voted for by over 28,000 readers
The world’s best hotels
Compiled by Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards
1. Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, Pudong
2. Peninsula House, Dominican Republic
3. Four Seasons Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
4. Safari Lodges at Phinda Private Game Reserve, South Africa
5. Kirawira Luxury Tented Camp, Tanzania
6. Lodge at Kauri Cliffs, New Zealand
7. Elysian Hotel, Chicago
8. Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok
9. Mombo and Little Mombo Camps, Botswana
10. 21c Museum Hotel, Louisville, Ky.
In a historic waterside location in one of America’s oldest cities, Harbor East in Baltimore has emerged as a lively community of shops, restaurants, galleries and now, rising 18 stories above it all, the new Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore.
“All around us the city is coming alive with new excitement and vigour,” says Julien Carralero, general manager of the 256-room Hotel. “Now at last we are part of that as we open our doors and invite Baltimore inside, and send visitors who stay with us out into the city to experience the local arts and culture, get to know our neighbourhoods, cheer on our sports teams and shop to their heart’s content.”
The area’s emerging sense of style comes to life at the new Hotel. In fact, first time visitors may be forgiven for thinking they’ve accidentally walked into an art gallery as they are greeted by John Wigmore’s huge installation of light and paper behind the reception desk. The wide lobby and grand staircase are lit by stunning handblown murano glass fixtures, with pieces that form part of the city’s largest hotel art collection gracing the walls. Throughout the Hotel, modern works by contemporary American and international artists are on display, with special emphasis on those associated with Washington Color School.
But it’s not all style without substance. At the very heart of everything at Four Seasons is a deep commitment and dedication to service. Voted one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies To Work For every year since the survey’s inception, the company’s employees continuously look for ways to make every guest’s experience memorable. With strong local ties, Four Seasons hotels become centres of both business and social life in their communities.
“Baltimore is my hometown, and it’s going to be my honour to show all it has to offer to visitors, and even let locals in on a few hidden gems they might not know about,” says Concierge Preston Rooks. “Whether it’s a seat on the 50 yard line at M&T Stadium to cheer on the Ravens or tickets to see a hit show at the Hippodrome, we’ll connect you with what’s happening, along with the best shopping, art exhibitions, neighbourhood walks, diversions for the kids and so much more.”
At the same time, there’s plenty to do without ever leaving the Hotel, from sensational new restaurants and bars to the sophisticated urban spa and incredible pool deck overlooking the harbor. Whether in town for business or to catch a baseball game, stopping in for lunch amid a day of shopping, booking a weekend “staycation” in the city or hosting a conference or charity gala, Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore is where it all begins.
