Swiss hotels most expensive in Europe

Switzerland’s cities are still the most expensive places to stay in Europe according to the Hotels.com Hotel Price Index 2010. Although hotel prices fell by about 10 percent last year, visitors had to fork out 200 francs on average for a night in a Swiss hotel.

That’s more than the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Norway and almost twice as much as a night in a hotel in the main cities in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. Geneva was the fifth most expensive city worldwide, with an average room rate of about CHF 230. Zurich rounded out the top 10 at CHF 190 per night. Monte Carlo was the world’s most expensive hotel destination city, with travellers paying an average of about 275 francs a night to stay there.

Read Full Entry

Sydney's most expensive playground

Sydney's Darling Harbour will soon boast the city's largest and most expensive playground. Work has started on the 4000 square metre playground in front of the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre

It will feature a large climbing rope structure, a sand pit with digging implements, a flying fox and a giant slide. More than 28 million people visit Darling Harbour in the city's centre each year.

And the new playground is expected to attract more visitors to the area, NSW minister for planning Tony Kelly said. The $NZ10.38 million playground is part of the $A500 million redevelopment of Darling Walk by Lend Lease and the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority.

Read Full Entry

The Most Expensive U.S. Cities To Visit

For the first time in recent memory, the average price of a hotel room in New York City is less than $200 a night.

Prices are also down in Honolulu, Hawaii, a destination for the kind of lengthy vacations that mainlanders are cutting back on these days.

Across the U.S., the most expensive cities to travel to are also where prices are dropping the most.

Where prices are highest, there's more room to drop. And deals have been the order of the day in 2009 as hotel chains battled a rough economy and falling occupancy rates. Hotels are a lot like houses or airplane seats. Build too many of them during flush times, and you're left with too much capacity. As demand falls off during a recession, prices drop.

The hospitality industry built nearly 400,000 new rooms in the U.S. between 2004 and 2009, according to data from Smith Travel Research, a 9% bump over five years. Meanwhile, average occupancy rates dropped to 55% last year from 60% in 2008. Falling prices have come mostly from the penthouse or other swanky spots.

"You've got five-star rates getting lowered to compete with the three-and-a-half-star rates," says Scott Booker, a vice president at Hotels.com, an online booking service that provides rooms at 94,000 hotel properties worldwide.

The good news for the industry is that price declines are at least showing signs of leveling off. The same comparison six months earlier (for the first half of 2009 vs. 2008) showed a 16% spread, meaning year-over-year price changes are narrowing. Consumers should see the recent trend as a warning that the window they've enjoyed for good hotel deals is beginning to close. As businesses begin easing up their travel restrictions, hotel chains won't be resorting to as many special deals to lure guests.

While prices have fallen across the board, even in the high-priced markets, the traditionally expensive cities have retained their perches relative to others. The average room rate in New York City fell to $199 in late 2009 from $262 a year earlier. But the Big Apple still reigns as the most expensive city in which to get a room for the night. It's followed by other historically expensive destinations whose prices have eased off of late:

Honolulu ($160; down 12%), Boston ($158; down 18%), Washington, D.C. ($144; down 11%) and Miami ($140; down 14%). The bulk of the most expensive cities have one thing in common: they're coastal locations amid dense populations. That means they're drawing from big pools of weekend travelers opting for a quick road trip getaway in lieu of getting on a plane.

Booker sees prices trending back up in 2010, though not in any mad rush. "We've still got unemployment close to 10%," he says. "It will be slow going for most of the year." Still, it'll be a long time before the deals out there are better than they are right now.

Read Full Entry

Five of UK's most expensive streets in Barnet

BARNET boasts five of the country's most exclusive streets, according to a survey out today. Five of the most expensive streets in the UK fall within the borough boundaries, according to the Mouseprice street rankings. Ingram Avenue in Hampstead Garden Suburb is the second most expensive road in the country, with an average house price of £6,085,800.

Nearby Winnington Road is in sixth place with an average house price of £5,386,00, and The Bishops Avenue is 16th, with homes a snip at £4,754,700. The streets are also bordered by Courtenay Avenue, which falls into the borough of Haringey, which is third in the list.

All three roads are situated between Highgate and Hampstead golf courses, which according to Mouseprice makes it “one of the most exclusive places to live in the country”. Two other streets, Eden Close and Elm Walk, which border leafy Hampstead Heath in Childs Hill, come in eighth and 11th respectively with average prices of £5,120,500 and £4,927,600.

Read Full Entry

The world’s most expensive Pinotage

The most expensive Pinotage, a blend of pinot noir and hermitage grapes, from South Africa, has just been released according to Decanter, a prestigious wine magazine. Kanonkop Black Label Pinotage 2006, from the renowned Stellenbosch farm, has sold out of its first 600 bottles at R1000 (€95) and will release 400 more in March; the price is yet to be determined. Johann Krige, owner of Kanonkop, told Decanter, "2007 will be released in September this year and the 2008 in March next year".

Krige plans to sell 2012 "En primeur, Bordeaux style" and "develop a secondary market" by introducing the Kanonkop Black Label Pinotage 2012 in November to investors and the press while the wine is still in barrel. According to Decanter, "the next priciest Pinotage is the Ashbourne 2005 from Hamilton Russell Vineyards, retailing in Cape Town for R424 [€55] a bottle."

Read Full Entry

5 Of The World’s Most Expensive Phones

The release of the Apple iPhone 3GS SUPREME Rose – a jewel-clad iPhone that costs a staggering £1.93 million – making it the most expensive phone ever seen, got us thinking about phones that nobody wants or needs. Granted, none can match the SUPREME Rose in the cost stakes, but if you want to know more about diamond-encrusted smartphones then read on…

Some of the handsets we’ve gathered together below certainly outdo the Apple iPhone 3GS SUPREME Rose when it comes to ‘in-yer-face’ styling – indeed, the SUPREME Rose is actually quite restrained in its design – but nothing can come close to matching the vulgar £1.93 million price tag.

Where rivals are clad throughout in diamonds, the SUPREME Rose features a back panel made out of 112g of 18ct rose gold. That’s not to say it’s a diamond-free zone – quite the opposite, in fact – with 53 diamonds used on the Apple logo alone, and the platinum bezel covered with 130 individual flawless diamonds. Keeping it safe is a case made out of ostrich foot, highlighting the bizarre nature of this end of the market.

Even the majority of the seriously wealthy will baulk at the price of the SUPREME Rose, however, so we’ve also put it up against four of its cut-priced rivals, with a collection of devices that – lets face it – nobody really wants or needs.

Check out some more sensibly priced smartphones

The Diamond Crypto Smartphone
At $1.3 Million, the Diamond Crypto falls a long way short of the Supreme Edition’s £1.9 million price, making it ideal for those having to cut back on life’s little luxuries. At does at least have the advantage of having a distinctive design – rather than borrowing from the immensely popular iPhone – but it also distinctly lacking in features. You will get a platinum body however, and 10 of the 50 diamonds are a rare blue diamond.

Le Million De La Nuit
Le Million De La Nuit – or the million dollar phone is available for less than half the price of the SUPREME Edition iPhone, yet the distinctive design at least goes some way to distinguishing it from the handsets of the common man. It’s a available with a choice of solid gold, or plastered in diamonds, and you’ll be able to choose between 15 different variants depending on your taste (or lack of).

Blackberry Pearl Limited Diamond Edition
This Blackberry Pearl Limited Diamond Edition is a positive snip at a mere £45,000, despite being encrusted with 900 cut diamonds and white gold. That said, there are still plenty of the Blackberry’s original plastics in evidence, so perhaps the extra £1,885,000 for the Apple iPhone 3GS SUPREME Edition is worth it….

Nokia N95 White Diamond Encrusted Luxury Mobile Phone
As is often the case with luxury mobile phones, this Nokia is actually a previous-generation device, but there’s not doubting the bling appeal. With the entire front of this Nokia N95 plastered in 4.4ct of brilliant-cut naturally mined diamonds, it screams ‘LOOK AT ME’ more than any of the other phones here. At £10,000, it’s also a lot cheaper than the SUPREME Edition iPhone 3GS.

Read Full Entry