The Italian port city might be knee-high in trash. And, sure, it’s been subject to bloody Mafia wars and political corruption. But there’s real vibrancy, and even a little beauty, in all that chaos.
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Friday, April 25, 2008
Welcome to the travel and tourism guide to Tunisia
Hear the siren song that calls you to Tunisia. This hospitable land of colors and contrasts, spices and scents invites you to enjoy its natural beauty, ancient cities, lively festivals and warm friendliness of its people. Welcoming visitors to its shores has long been an honored Tunisian tradition and an impressive infrastructure of modern hotels, restaurants, international airports, tourism offices and information centers has been developped to add to our guests comfort and pleasure.
In this land of the familiar and the exotic one can watch the sunrise over the Sahara, enjoy a gourmet meal at a seaside resort and top off the evening with a midnight swim in the pool of a modern comfortble hotel.
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In this land of the familiar and the exotic one can watch the sunrise over the Sahara, enjoy a gourmet meal at a seaside resort and top off the evening with a midnight swim in the pool of a modern comfortble hotel.
read more
Win a touring holiday to the Lower Rhine
Enter our price draw and WIN A FABULOUS HOLIDAY FOR TWO touring the culturally rich area of the Lower Rhine and stay at one of the grand castles in Germany - Schloss Hertefeld. The Lower Rhine loops alongside the ancient borderlands of Germany and Holland. Its landscape is open and wide, and is characterised by avenues of poplars, water-and windmills, and willows that shade riverside meadows
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Welcome to Vagabond Cruises
In over 25 years, Vagabond Cruises have had the pleasure of hosting countless special events across the beautiful waters of Sydney Harbour - from casual occasions, to glamorous, grand affairs.
Our unique fleet of vessels is equipped with everything you could need for an unforgettable event, boasting spacious, carpeted dining areas, parquet dance floors, observation decks, not to mention fine food, refreshing drinks and dazzling entertainment.
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Our unique fleet of vessels is equipped with everything you could need for an unforgettable event, boasting spacious, carpeted dining areas, parquet dance floors, observation decks, not to mention fine food, refreshing drinks and dazzling entertainment.
read more
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Business Visas to Australia
Invest, establish or purchase a business in Australia!
Australia welcomes experienced business people who can bring their expertise and investment to Australia. There has never been a better opportunity to benefit from Australia's Business Skills Program, with a booming economy and record low unemployment.
What are the requirements for a business visa?
Australian Business Visa RequirementsTo be eligible for one of the provisional business visas, you must have:
a successful business or investment career and,
a genuine commitment to engage in business activities in Australia.
To be eligible, there are certain basic criteria you must satisfy, but there is no points test. The entry threshold, particularly concerning age, English language ability, business turnover or assets is lower for applicants who secure sponsorship from an Australian State or Territory Government. Sponsored applicants will be given priority processing
AN OFFICIAL PROGRAM BY USA CONGRESS
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery has been established in the 1996 Immigration Act in order to give immigration opportunity to natives from countries other than the main source of immigration to the U.S.A. This official U.S. government program aims to diversify the American population by creating an immigration opportunity to under-represented ethnic groups.
Immigration to Australia increasing amongst UK pensioners wanting better weather and lifestyle.
Australia has been announced as the most popular retirement destination for Scottish Pensioners with almost 95,000 now claiming their pensions abroad, up by a third in the past decade. The second and third most popular destinations for retiring abroad being Ireland and Spain.
The big increase in the number of Scottish pensioners looking to move abroad is expected to continue to rise, and is expected to reach 300,000 by 2050
A recent poll found that a third of those reaching retirement age planned to move abroad. With financial worries being the main reason. With the main benefits of moving abroad seen as the better weather, lifestyle and cost of living. One immigration consultant was quoted as saying “Many people who contact us are fed up with Scotland. They say the country is going down the tubes and that they don’t see any future here.”
A recent report published by the Public Policy Research found that there are more Britons living abroad than foreign migrants moving to the UK. The report also showed that the number of Britons buying property overseas has increased by a staggering fifty percent in just three years. The study concluded that British are one of the most footloose people in the world, with more Britons living abroad in the greatest number of different countries than any other nationality. There are now 41 countries with more than 10,000 British people living there, and a further 71 countries with over 1000 British people living there.
The increase in immigration now means that more people are emigrating than at the height of the last immigration peak, just before the First World War, when 300,000 people per annum where leaving their country.
And it’s just not the pensioners looking to retire in the sun and making the most of a lower cost of living, it’s also the young and highly skilled. Four out of 10 emigrating in 2004 were managerial or professional occupations.
The increasing number of people looking to immigrate to Australia compounded with the limited number of immigration places available has meant there is competition amongst applicants for Australian visas. It is now probably more important than ever to have a good understanding of how the Australian immigration officials assess visa applications in order that applicants can maximise their chance of gaining an Australian Visa
Australia welcomes experienced business people who can bring their expertise and investment to Australia. There has never been a better opportunity to benefit from Australia's Business Skills Program, with a booming economy and record low unemployment.
What are the requirements for a business visa?
Australian Business Visa RequirementsTo be eligible for one of the provisional business visas, you must have:
a successful business or investment career and,
a genuine commitment to engage in business activities in Australia.
To be eligible, there are certain basic criteria you must satisfy, but there is no points test. The entry threshold, particularly concerning age, English language ability, business turnover or assets is lower for applicants who secure sponsorship from an Australian State or Territory Government. Sponsored applicants will be given priority processing
AN OFFICIAL PROGRAM BY USA CONGRESS
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery has been established in the 1996 Immigration Act in order to give immigration opportunity to natives from countries other than the main source of immigration to the U.S.A. This official U.S. government program aims to diversify the American population by creating an immigration opportunity to under-represented ethnic groups.
Immigration to Australia increasing amongst UK pensioners wanting better weather and lifestyle.
Australia has been announced as the most popular retirement destination for Scottish Pensioners with almost 95,000 now claiming their pensions abroad, up by a third in the past decade. The second and third most popular destinations for retiring abroad being Ireland and Spain.
The big increase in the number of Scottish pensioners looking to move abroad is expected to continue to rise, and is expected to reach 300,000 by 2050
A recent poll found that a third of those reaching retirement age planned to move abroad. With financial worries being the main reason. With the main benefits of moving abroad seen as the better weather, lifestyle and cost of living. One immigration consultant was quoted as saying “Many people who contact us are fed up with Scotland. They say the country is going down the tubes and that they don’t see any future here.”
A recent report published by the Public Policy Research found that there are more Britons living abroad than foreign migrants moving to the UK. The report also showed that the number of Britons buying property overseas has increased by a staggering fifty percent in just three years. The study concluded that British are one of the most footloose people in the world, with more Britons living abroad in the greatest number of different countries than any other nationality. There are now 41 countries with more than 10,000 British people living there, and a further 71 countries with over 1000 British people living there.
The increase in immigration now means that more people are emigrating than at the height of the last immigration peak, just before the First World War, when 300,000 people per annum where leaving their country.
And it’s just not the pensioners looking to retire in the sun and making the most of a lower cost of living, it’s also the young and highly skilled. Four out of 10 emigrating in 2004 were managerial or professional occupations.
The increasing number of people looking to immigrate to Australia compounded with the limited number of immigration places available has meant there is competition amongst applicants for Australian visas. It is now probably more important than ever to have a good understanding of how the Australian immigration officials assess visa applications in order that applicants can maximise their chance of gaining an Australian Visa
Studying in Canada
More than 130,000 students come to study in Canada every year and even more come to Canada to learn English or French. Foreign students bring a rich culture to our classrooms. Your knowledge and skills are welcome in our schools.
The provinces regulate education and schools in Canada. For more detailed information on living and studying in a specific province or territory, contact the school where you wish to study
Studying in Canada: Study permits
To study in Canada, you may need a study permit or a temporary resident visa, though not everyone must have these documents
Studying in Canada: Study permits
To study in Canada, you may need a study permit or a temporary resident visa, though not everyone must have these documents.
Studying in Canada: Work permits for students
It is possible to work in Canada while you are here as a student, and there are opportunities for jobs on and off campus. You will need to apply.
Visiting Canada
Canada welcomes you as a tourist, student or temporary worker. Every year, more than 35 million people visit Canada to enjoy the many opportunities our country has to offer.
Depending on where you live, and the reason for your visit, you will need to meet certain entry requirements. In some cases, if you plan to stay in Canada for a certain period of time, you will need a Temporary Resident Visa
The provinces regulate education and schools in Canada. For more detailed information on living and studying in a specific province or territory, contact the school where you wish to study
Studying in Canada: Study permits
To study in Canada, you may need a study permit or a temporary resident visa, though not everyone must have these documents
Studying in Canada: Study permits
To study in Canada, you may need a study permit or a temporary resident visa, though not everyone must have these documents.
Studying in Canada: Work permits for students
It is possible to work in Canada while you are here as a student, and there are opportunities for jobs on and off campus. You will need to apply.
Visiting Canada
Canada welcomes you as a tourist, student or temporary worker. Every year, more than 35 million people visit Canada to enjoy the many opportunities our country has to offer.
Depending on where you live, and the reason for your visit, you will need to meet certain entry requirements. In some cases, if you plan to stay in Canada for a certain period of time, you will need a Temporary Resident Visa
Working in Canada
Every year, over 90,000 foreign workers enter Canada to work temporarily in jobs that help Canadian employers address skill shortages, or as live-in caregivers.
A work permit is needed for most temporary jobs in Canada, though for some positions and business people it is not necessary. More information on work permits for temporary jobs can be found in this section of the website.Investors, entrepreneurs and self-employed persons
The Business Immigration Program seeks to attract experienced business people to Canada who will support the development of a strong and prosperous Canadian economy
Working temporarily in Canada: Who can apply
Some temporary workers require a work permit and some do not. Some workers fall into categories where permits are approved more quickly.
The requirements and processing times depend on what sort of work you will be doing when you come to CanadaEvery year, over 90,000 foreign workers enter Canada to work temporarily in jobs that help Canadian employers address skill shortages, or as live-in caregivers.
A work permit is needed for most temporary jobs in Canada, though for some positions and business people it is not necessary. More information on work permits for temporary jobs can be found in this section of the website.Investors, entrepreneurs and self-employed persons
The Business Immigration Program seeks to attract experienced business people to Canada who will support the development of a strong and prosperous Canadian economy.
Business immigrants are expected to make a $400,000 investment or to own and manage businesses in Canada.
Canada has three classes of business immigrants:
* investors
* entrepreneurs and
* self-employed persons.
Each application can be made for only one class and cannot be changed once the application is submitted. The criteria you must meet to qualify are different for
each class.
MORE HERE
A work permit is needed for most temporary jobs in Canada, though for some positions and business people it is not necessary. More information on work permits for temporary jobs can be found in this section of the website.Investors, entrepreneurs and self-employed persons
The Business Immigration Program seeks to attract experienced business people to Canada who will support the development of a strong and prosperous Canadian economy
Working temporarily in Canada: Who can apply
Some temporary workers require a work permit and some do not. Some workers fall into categories where permits are approved more quickly.
The requirements and processing times depend on what sort of work you will be doing when you come to CanadaEvery year, over 90,000 foreign workers enter Canada to work temporarily in jobs that help Canadian employers address skill shortages, or as live-in caregivers.
A work permit is needed for most temporary jobs in Canada, though for some positions and business people it is not necessary. More information on work permits for temporary jobs can be found in this section of the website.Investors, entrepreneurs and self-employed persons
The Business Immigration Program seeks to attract experienced business people to Canada who will support the development of a strong and prosperous Canadian economy.
Business immigrants are expected to make a $400,000 investment or to own and manage businesses in Canada.
Canada has three classes of business immigrants:
* investors
* entrepreneurs and
* self-employed persons.
Each application can be made for only one class and cannot be changed once the application is submitted. The criteria you must meet to qualify are different for
each class.
MORE HERE
Is Queensland the new New Zealand?
recent years New Zealand has cornered the market for Antipodean thrill-seeking and self-drive touring holidays.
But over the past week I have been in Queensland discovering that at least one Aussie state is mounting a challenge to the Kiwis on both counts. I suppose the Sunshine State has always had an adventurous feel about it, what with the reef to dive on and the rainforest to play in. But it has also been traditionally associated with lazy beachside holidays.
I reckon that image is about to change. There are now many more imaginative ways of experiencing the rainforest and I've been here I have tried a few. The most thrilling was jungle surfing in the Daintree rainforest, which involved gliding (upside down) through the canopy on flying foxes. But my favourite adventure was a serene drift snorkelling tour along the Mossman river, negotiating occasional rapids and spotting turtles and eels along the way. I am too old to have tried other possibilities like swinging, but anybody who's prepared to get off their loungers will find thrills aplenty in Tropical North Queensland.
On a more sedate note, the state is also redefining itself as a driving holiday destination. I followed part of the Great Tropical Drive, motoring gradually down through rainforest and past huge sugar cane and banana plantations from Cape Tribulation to Townsville. The route is particularly spectacular between Cape Trib and the Daintree River, the skinny road twisting and turning through deep-green jungle and from Port Douglas to Cairns where it hugs the coast. A self-drive holiday like this is another memorable alternative to a traditional Queensland holiday.
Is Queensland the next Antipodean adventure capital or will New Zealand continue to rule the roost? Which Aussie state is the best for a self-drive or thrill-seeking holiday?
read more
But over the past week I have been in Queensland discovering that at least one Aussie state is mounting a challenge to the Kiwis on both counts. I suppose the Sunshine State has always had an adventurous feel about it, what with the reef to dive on and the rainforest to play in. But it has also been traditionally associated with lazy beachside holidays.
I reckon that image is about to change. There are now many more imaginative ways of experiencing the rainforest and I've been here I have tried a few. The most thrilling was jungle surfing in the Daintree rainforest, which involved gliding (upside down) through the canopy on flying foxes. But my favourite adventure was a serene drift snorkelling tour along the Mossman river, negotiating occasional rapids and spotting turtles and eels along the way. I am too old to have tried other possibilities like swinging, but anybody who's prepared to get off their loungers will find thrills aplenty in Tropical North Queensland.
On a more sedate note, the state is also redefining itself as a driving holiday destination. I followed part of the Great Tropical Drive, motoring gradually down through rainforest and past huge sugar cane and banana plantations from Cape Tribulation to Townsville. The route is particularly spectacular between Cape Trib and the Daintree River, the skinny road twisting and turning through deep-green jungle and from Port Douglas to Cairns where it hugs the coast. A self-drive holiday like this is another memorable alternative to a traditional Queensland holiday.
Is Queensland the next Antipodean adventure capital or will New Zealand continue to rule the roost? Which Aussie state is the best for a self-drive or thrill-seeking holiday?
read more
Off-beat London
Article by: Abigail Hole, April 2008
Buckingham, Schmuckingham: go off-piste and explore London's eccentric secrets. Here are 10 of the best.
1 Go on a Bat Walk
Places are sought after on the St James's Park Bat Walks, which take place at dusk and start at Horseguards Parade (tube: Charing Cross); book ahead.
Almost as interesting as the bat spotting itself are your fellow spotters, who range from flappy-eared fanatics to quintessential English gentlemen, all sporting crackly bat detectors. The tension mounts as you circle the lake without spotting a single flying mammal, but as evening falls, the bats oblige by whirring above the trees, provoking a moment of pure wonder.
2 Find gods in Neasden
BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (tube: Neasden), the first Hindu temple in Europe, would be amazing anywhere. But in a northwest London suburb, off the North Circular motorway, it's otherworldly. The lace-like marble carving, delicate as flowers, was made by Indian sculptors and then shipped to the UK, where volunteers worked to build the temple from 26,300 carved pieces. Built from 1992 to 1995 and funded entirely by donations, it's a focus for the area's Indian community, but everyone is welcome.
3 Visit Sir John Soane's Museum by candlelight
Sir John Soane's Museum (Lincoln's Inn Fields; tube: Holborn), the 18th-century architect's former home, is a peculiarly British Aladdin's cave. It's at its most magical by candlelight (6-9pm, first Tuesday of the month).
From outside, the museum is a graceful townhouse. Within you'll find a treasure trove, lit by hidden skylights, reflected by mirrors, and topped by a glass dome. Highlights of Soane's crammed-in collection of art, sculpture and antiques include the Egyptian sarcophagus of Seti l and a bevy of Hogarth paintings.
4 Tango at a tea dance
Don your glad rags and get down to the magnificent Old Finsbury Town Hall for Art of the Dog's fabulous tea dance (artofthedog@hotmail.com; 2-5pm, monthly on a Sunday; Rosebery Avenue; tube: Angel). This traditional affair is a dazzling mixture of ages and types, with 40s-styled nouveau sirens outdanced by old ladies in sequins. It's a chance to dust off your waltz, foxtrot and quickstep in gorgeous yet unintimidating surroundings. Don't panic if you've never done it before - lessons are included. Tea, cake, and G&Ts will help put twinkle in your toes.
5 Get kinky at the Torture Garden
'Did they come on the bus? Or even by cab?' you can't help wondering, as another spiked PVC corset or fishnet bodystocking struts past. There aren't many places where you can spot thong-wearing bank managers and people tied up in corners (who always go home early). Wear too many clothes and you'll feel distinctly prudish at the Torture Garden. The world's leading fetish club takes place regularly at Mass, a club in a converted Brixton church (tube: Brixton). Shows to make you go ‘ouch' (such as on-stage piercing) add to the all-round freakiness.
6 Take a bracing dip
Swimming in the Serpentine Lido at Hyde Park is as civilised as cucumber sandwiches. For most, it's a summer activity (open daily, 5 June-11 September), but join the Serpentine Swimming Club and you can swim every day of the year. When the lake is frozen, swimmers break the ice for what must be a brisk dip.
Another top swimming spot is Hampstead Bathing Ponds (Hampstead Heath; open May to September). This rural idyll of a pond is surrounded by London's loveliest woodlands. If you want to swim year round, stiffen your sinews and join Hampstead Swimming Club.
7 Take a Duck Tour
A Duck Tour is a remarkable sightseeing tour in canary-yellow vehicles that drive on the road and float on water. Formerly military vehicles used in the D-Day landings, these Chitty Chitty Bang Bang truck-boat hybrids are each pushing 70 years old. The 75-minute tour trundles around central London, then lurches alarmingly into the Thames to chug low in the water alongside the Houses of Parliament. The entertaining guides combine interesting facts, stand-up comedy and stream-of-consciousness commentary.
8 Join the circus
Nothing builds a six pack like working out on a trapeze, and you no longer have to run away with the circus to get one. The Generating Company (0207 0933 204; Buoy Wharf, E14; DLR: East India) offers courses in trapeze, acrobatics, rope/silks and Chinese pole (tricks on a vertical steel pole), and allows you to sign up for a two-lesson taster.
9 Experience Westminster live
Want to witness all the turmoil and torpor of parliamentary politics? Attend a debate in the Houses of Commons or Lords. Join the queue outside St Stephen's Gate; proceedings are open to both UK and overseas residents. You'll need to apply for a free ticket in advance (UK residents only) for Question Time, when politicians are at their friskiest.
Not many people know that you can visit Big Ben by applying in writing to your MP (UK residents only). You climb 334 vertiginous steps to the bell's hidden lair. After the hour strikes, your ears will be humming for days - but it's a small price to pay for such an adventure.
10 Go boho at the Horse Hospital
This Bloomsbury arts venue (Colonnade; tube: Russell Square) was once - surprise! - a horse hospital. You enter up the slope where the horses once clip-clopped into the building. It might feel like a spooky squat party, but this is London's most avant garde arts centre, with underground art and photography exhibitions and out-there films. Tickets are £7; films are obscure.
read more
Buckingham, Schmuckingham: go off-piste and explore London's eccentric secrets. Here are 10 of the best.
1 Go on a Bat Walk
Places are sought after on the St James's Park Bat Walks, which take place at dusk and start at Horseguards Parade (tube: Charing Cross); book ahead.
Almost as interesting as the bat spotting itself are your fellow spotters, who range from flappy-eared fanatics to quintessential English gentlemen, all sporting crackly bat detectors. The tension mounts as you circle the lake without spotting a single flying mammal, but as evening falls, the bats oblige by whirring above the trees, provoking a moment of pure wonder.
2 Find gods in Neasden
BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (tube: Neasden), the first Hindu temple in Europe, would be amazing anywhere. But in a northwest London suburb, off the North Circular motorway, it's otherworldly. The lace-like marble carving, delicate as flowers, was made by Indian sculptors and then shipped to the UK, where volunteers worked to build the temple from 26,300 carved pieces. Built from 1992 to 1995 and funded entirely by donations, it's a focus for the area's Indian community, but everyone is welcome.
3 Visit Sir John Soane's Museum by candlelight
Sir John Soane's Museum (Lincoln's Inn Fields; tube: Holborn), the 18th-century architect's former home, is a peculiarly British Aladdin's cave. It's at its most magical by candlelight (6-9pm, first Tuesday of the month).
From outside, the museum is a graceful townhouse. Within you'll find a treasure trove, lit by hidden skylights, reflected by mirrors, and topped by a glass dome. Highlights of Soane's crammed-in collection of art, sculpture and antiques include the Egyptian sarcophagus of Seti l and a bevy of Hogarth paintings.
4 Tango at a tea dance
Don your glad rags and get down to the magnificent Old Finsbury Town Hall for Art of the Dog's fabulous tea dance (artofthedog@hotmail.com; 2-5pm, monthly on a Sunday; Rosebery Avenue; tube: Angel). This traditional affair is a dazzling mixture of ages and types, with 40s-styled nouveau sirens outdanced by old ladies in sequins. It's a chance to dust off your waltz, foxtrot and quickstep in gorgeous yet unintimidating surroundings. Don't panic if you've never done it before - lessons are included. Tea, cake, and G&Ts will help put twinkle in your toes.
5 Get kinky at the Torture Garden
'Did they come on the bus? Or even by cab?' you can't help wondering, as another spiked PVC corset or fishnet bodystocking struts past. There aren't many places where you can spot thong-wearing bank managers and people tied up in corners (who always go home early). Wear too many clothes and you'll feel distinctly prudish at the Torture Garden. The world's leading fetish club takes place regularly at Mass, a club in a converted Brixton church (tube: Brixton). Shows to make you go ‘ouch' (such as on-stage piercing) add to the all-round freakiness.
6 Take a bracing dip
Swimming in the Serpentine Lido at Hyde Park is as civilised as cucumber sandwiches. For most, it's a summer activity (open daily, 5 June-11 September), but join the Serpentine Swimming Club and you can swim every day of the year. When the lake is frozen, swimmers break the ice for what must be a brisk dip.
Another top swimming spot is Hampstead Bathing Ponds (Hampstead Heath; open May to September). This rural idyll of a pond is surrounded by London's loveliest woodlands. If you want to swim year round, stiffen your sinews and join Hampstead Swimming Club.
7 Take a Duck Tour
A Duck Tour is a remarkable sightseeing tour in canary-yellow vehicles that drive on the road and float on water. Formerly military vehicles used in the D-Day landings, these Chitty Chitty Bang Bang truck-boat hybrids are each pushing 70 years old. The 75-minute tour trundles around central London, then lurches alarmingly into the Thames to chug low in the water alongside the Houses of Parliament. The entertaining guides combine interesting facts, stand-up comedy and stream-of-consciousness commentary.
8 Join the circus
Nothing builds a six pack like working out on a trapeze, and you no longer have to run away with the circus to get one. The Generating Company (0207 0933 204; Buoy Wharf, E14; DLR: East India) offers courses in trapeze, acrobatics, rope/silks and Chinese pole (tricks on a vertical steel pole), and allows you to sign up for a two-lesson taster.
9 Experience Westminster live
Want to witness all the turmoil and torpor of parliamentary politics? Attend a debate in the Houses of Commons or Lords. Join the queue outside St Stephen's Gate; proceedings are open to both UK and overseas residents. You'll need to apply for a free ticket in advance (UK residents only) for Question Time, when politicians are at their friskiest.
Not many people know that you can visit Big Ben by applying in writing to your MP (UK residents only). You climb 334 vertiginous steps to the bell's hidden lair. After the hour strikes, your ears will be humming for days - but it's a small price to pay for such an adventure.
10 Go boho at the Horse Hospital
This Bloomsbury arts venue (Colonnade; tube: Russell Square) was once - surprise! - a horse hospital. You enter up the slope where the horses once clip-clopped into the building. It might feel like a spooky squat party, but this is London's most avant garde arts centre, with underground art and photography exhibitions and out-there films. Tickets are £7; films are obscure.
read more
Lap of Luxury
Article by: Clifton Wilkinson, April 2008
If money really was no object, where would you go? What would you drink? Get some fuel for your cash-splashing dreams.
What's that rustling sound? Yes, it's a windfall - a lucky chunk of unexpected cash has landed in your lap. Maybe your lottery numbers came up or your reclusive aunt has left you the sole beneficiary of her will. Either way, you're now the proud owner of more money than you know what to do with. If you feel the high life beckoning, allow us to show you where to start splurging.
The world's most expensive cocktail - Manchester, England
To help you over the shock of your new-found wealth you're probably going to need a stiff drink - a stiff, fancy drink. Take some pink champagne, strawberry liqueur, lychee liqueur and lemon juice. Stir and garnish with an 18-carat white-gold ring with tourmaline and diamonds. Yes, you read that right. The world's most expensive cocktail, served up in the Manchester branch of Harvey Nichols, the UK's poshest department store, contains not just the usual alcoholic ingredients but a little something special at the bottom - security guards need to escort it to your table. And with a price tag of £15,250 (around US$30,000), this is definitely a drink to sip rather than gulp down in one.
The world's best restaurant - Roses, Spain
You've had your celebratory cocktail, now it's time to jet off to Catalonia (naturally offsetting your carbon emissions - no excuse now you're super-rich) to dine at El Bulli. For around €250 a head you'll be treated to superstar chef Ferran Adrià's 'molecular gastronomy' - try the breaded sea cucumber with coconut sponge and smoked oil. You'll need to hit the jackpot again, though: the restaurant is only open from April to September each year and bookings for the 8000 places are snapped up on just one day in October - meaning an average of 400 requests per table.
The world's only 7-star hotel - Dubai, UAE
Dubai's Burj Al Arab blows a five-star rating out of the glistening water and ups the ante to seven. So how does it earn those vital two extra stars? Well, first off it's currently the world's tallest hotel (reaching 321m) and its sail-like design and waterfront location are admittedly impressive. Inside, the decor is best described as luxury kitsch (think hi-tech meets Baroque meets Arabian splendour) and if you don't flinch at paying at least UAE$6000 (around US$1600) per night for your duplex suite, you won't mind splashing out a bit more in one of the many restaurants (including one with its own aquarium reached by simulated submarine ride). If you want to burn off a few gilded calories afterwards, why not have a game of tennis - on the rooftop helipad. Probably best not to chase those wide balls.
Enjoy your own tropical paradise - Necker Island, the Caribbean
If the thought of staying in a mere hotel isn't enough for newly wealthy you, how about taking over a whole island for a long weekend? You and 27 of your closest friends can enjoy the Caribbean delights of Necker Island for just US$47,000 a night (five night minimum). Just explain what you'd like to eat and drink and when, what sports you'd like to learn, what time you'd like to party until and so on, and management will sort out the details. In addition to the standard luxuries you'd expect at these prices - infinity pools, spas, tennis courts and so on - you get the services of fifty staff to see to your every whim and a calypso band to provide some locally flavoured background music while you drink your unlimited supply of champagne.
Really really get away from it all - in space
When your new-found wealth seems to bring a string of pleading 'friends' out the woodwork, what better way to escape them than by heading into space? For a cool US$200,000 you can take a suborbital flight on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (well, you can book a spot at least - the first flights aren't leaving until 2010 or so). Or for a bordering-on-insane US$100 million you can hitch a ride with Space Adventures' Lunar Mission. Fly beyond the reach of those greedy relatives!
If money really was no object, where would you go? What would you drink? Get some fuel for your cash-splashing dreams.
What's that rustling sound? Yes, it's a windfall - a lucky chunk of unexpected cash has landed in your lap. Maybe your lottery numbers came up or your reclusive aunt has left you the sole beneficiary of her will. Either way, you're now the proud owner of more money than you know what to do with. If you feel the high life beckoning, allow us to show you where to start splurging.
The world's most expensive cocktail - Manchester, England
To help you over the shock of your new-found wealth you're probably going to need a stiff drink - a stiff, fancy drink. Take some pink champagne, strawberry liqueur, lychee liqueur and lemon juice. Stir and garnish with an 18-carat white-gold ring with tourmaline and diamonds. Yes, you read that right. The world's most expensive cocktail, served up in the Manchester branch of Harvey Nichols, the UK's poshest department store, contains not just the usual alcoholic ingredients but a little something special at the bottom - security guards need to escort it to your table. And with a price tag of £15,250 (around US$30,000), this is definitely a drink to sip rather than gulp down in one.
The world's best restaurant - Roses, Spain
You've had your celebratory cocktail, now it's time to jet off to Catalonia (naturally offsetting your carbon emissions - no excuse now you're super-rich) to dine at El Bulli. For around €250 a head you'll be treated to superstar chef Ferran Adrià's 'molecular gastronomy' - try the breaded sea cucumber with coconut sponge and smoked oil. You'll need to hit the jackpot again, though: the restaurant is only open from April to September each year and bookings for the 8000 places are snapped up on just one day in October - meaning an average of 400 requests per table.
The world's only 7-star hotel - Dubai, UAE
Dubai's Burj Al Arab blows a five-star rating out of the glistening water and ups the ante to seven. So how does it earn those vital two extra stars? Well, first off it's currently the world's tallest hotel (reaching 321m) and its sail-like design and waterfront location are admittedly impressive. Inside, the decor is best described as luxury kitsch (think hi-tech meets Baroque meets Arabian splendour) and if you don't flinch at paying at least UAE$6000 (around US$1600) per night for your duplex suite, you won't mind splashing out a bit more in one of the many restaurants (including one with its own aquarium reached by simulated submarine ride). If you want to burn off a few gilded calories afterwards, why not have a game of tennis - on the rooftop helipad. Probably best not to chase those wide balls.
Enjoy your own tropical paradise - Necker Island, the Caribbean
If the thought of staying in a mere hotel isn't enough for newly wealthy you, how about taking over a whole island for a long weekend? You and 27 of your closest friends can enjoy the Caribbean delights of Necker Island for just US$47,000 a night (five night minimum). Just explain what you'd like to eat and drink and when, what sports you'd like to learn, what time you'd like to party until and so on, and management will sort out the details. In addition to the standard luxuries you'd expect at these prices - infinity pools, spas, tennis courts and so on - you get the services of fifty staff to see to your every whim and a calypso band to provide some locally flavoured background music while you drink your unlimited supply of champagne.
Really really get away from it all - in space
When your new-found wealth seems to bring a string of pleading 'friends' out the woodwork, what better way to escape them than by heading into space? For a cool US$200,000 you can take a suborbital flight on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (well, you can book a spot at least - the first flights aren't leaving until 2010 or so). Or for a bordering-on-insane US$100 million you can hitch a ride with Space Adventures' Lunar Mission. Fly beyond the reach of those greedy relatives!
Win a trip to Disneyland!
Expedia.com.au and ninemsn Travel are offering you the chance to win a family holiday to Disneyland! A must do for every family; a trip to Disneyland brings you together like no other holiday experience. And with everything covered, your only job is to have fun!
The prize, valued at more than $12,000, includes:
Return economy airfares to Los Angeles for a family of four (two adults, two children)
Five nights' accommodation at a Disneyland Resort hotel for the family
Three-day Disneyland Resort Park Hopper tickets for the family
Six-day car hire so you can easily shuttle the family around!
To enter, simply click the "enter competition" button at the bottom of the page.
enter here
The prize, valued at more than $12,000, includes:
Return economy airfares to Los Angeles for a family of four (two adults, two children)
Five nights' accommodation at a Disneyland Resort hotel for the family
Three-day Disneyland Resort Park Hopper tickets for the family
Six-day car hire so you can easily shuttle the family around!
To enter, simply click the "enter competition" button at the bottom of the page.
enter here
Monday, April 21, 2008
From London to Rome on a MetroCard
By SETH KUGEL
Published: April 20, 2008
Correction Appended
SURE, you could visit Europe, but it’s just so darn inconvenient. The exchange rate turns you into a pauper, portions are minuscule, people smoke a lot, good bagels are practically nonexistent. Neither Greyhound nor Amtrak stop there. What kind of a tourist attraction is that?
So consider the advantages of a European weekend in New York. The city is more European than you think: where else could you dine on Bosnian sausage in (the Cevabdzinica) Sarajevo (restaurant), then take a 20-minute train ride to (the) Paris (Theater) for French film? A MetroCard costs a tiny fraction of what a Eurail pass does, but lets you visit most major tourist destinations in Europe (O.K., places named after them) without leaving the city.
First, a hotel: At the London NYC on West 54th Street, where the formal restaurant is called Gordon Ramsay at the London, the London suites start at $399 a night and the London atrium suite is $3,999 a night. Are those prices London enough for you?
Staying there for the Travel section last year, the Times’s restaurant critic Frank Bruni was impressed by the size of the rooms and the “smartly and indulgently up-to-the-minute space” (and the mirrored French doors — a bonus country!). In a separate review, he gave the restaurant two stars.
It’s only a short walk from the London to the Paris, where French movies attract a French and Francophile crowd that knows how to throw around a “formidable” or two and is clearly no stranger to the accent aigu. Now playing is “Flight of the Red Balloon,” which won a gleaming review from the Times’s Manohla Dargis. If you disagree and get bored, slip into the lobby and try to name the French actors (Bardot, Depardieu and the like) pictured there.
From the theater, it’s a pleasant walk along Parque Central to the Shops at Columbus Circle, where you’ll find Face Stockholm, the Swedish cosmetics store, and Davidoff of Geneva, which hawks cigars and even provides a minilounge to smoke them in.
Though it might be tempting to stop by a frankfurter salesman on the street corner, just head down 10th Avenue a few blocks for dinner at Hallo Berlin, an informal beer-guzzling place where the pork chops are tender, the tablecloths are gingham and the beer garden is open. If you don’t like their great beer selection, you can always order from their fun-to-pronounce list of brandies: Kirschwasser, Himbeergeist, Pflumi.
To loosen your tongue after this polysyllabic meal, it’s a quick walk to the Barcelona Bar, an otherwise ordinary watering hole that offers over 100 specialty shots, something like what you might find in Barcelona itself. If you are willing to sacrifice taste to keep the European theme going, try las Ramblas (grenadine, lime and tequila) or the Mussolini (Southern Comfort and Amaretto). Or just have a Peroni beer.
There’s lots more downtown. Cafe de Bruxelles on (bonus) Greenwich Avenue is a mussels-and-fries-with-no-ketchup kind of place in the West Village that attracts a crowd of regulars, including a high ratio of adorable elderly couples who look as if they’d have grown plump on the mayonnaisey dip and the crème brûlée tart.
You’ll no longer be able to visit Provence in Greenwich Village, which is closing Sunday (the owners plan to reopen the restaurant in May as Hundred Acres, serving rustic, farm-focused food). But you can try Régate, a little bistro on the Lower East Side named for France’s Île de Ré. You can try the mouclade de la couarde (mussels with saffron and cream) or the bourride rétaise à la lotte (monkfish), near replicas of the traditional dishes you’d find on the real island. (Or maybe not, but if you make a comment like that, few will be qualified to call you on it.)
If Italy’s more to your taste, you might head to Old Venice, actually Antica Venezia, a restaurant in the far West Village, or Firenze on the Upper East Side.
Afterward, you could check out Dublin 6, a West Village bar with a nice beer selection (little of which is Irish). But for those hankering for the Swiss Alps, there’s Gstaad, where skiers zoom down treacherous slopes (on a video projected on a wall in Chelsea), and the good-looking crowd lounges on minimalist ski-resort furniture.
Finally, for that classic combination of rock music and kielbasa, head to Warsaw, a cavernous club in the Polish National Home in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
If you’re still around on Monday morning, how about one more touch of Italy. The Rome Fastener Corporation showroom on West 25th Street may be short on the farfalle, but you won’t find grommets and eyelets like these on the Adriatic. And you won’t pay in euros, either.
NO EUROS NEEDED (OR ACCEPTED)
Cevabdzinica Sarajevo, 37-18 34th Avenue, Astoria, Queens; (718) 752-9528.
London NYC, 151 West 54th Street; (866) 690-2029; www.londonnyc.com.
Paris Theater, 4 West 58th Street; (212) 688-3800; www.theparistheatre.com; tickets $11.
Face Stockholm, 10 Columbus Circle, Ground Floor; (212) 823-9415; www.facestockholm.com.
Davidoff of Geneva, 10 Columbus Circle, Ground Floor; (212) 823-6383; www.davidoff.com.
Hallo Berlin, 624 10th Avenue at 44th Street; (212) 977-1944; www.halloberlinrestaurant.com.
Barcelona Bar, 923 Eighth Avenue near 55th Street; (212) 245-3212; www.barcelonabarnyc.com.
Cafe de Bruxelles, 118 Greenwich Avenue at 13th Street; (212) 206-1830; www.cafedebruxelles.com.
Régate, 198 Orchard Street at East Houston; (212) 228-8555; www.regate-bistro.com.
Antica Venezia, 396 West Street at 10th Street, (212) 229-0606; www.avnyc.com.
Firenze, 1594 Second Avenue at 82nd Street; (212) 861-9368.
Dublin 6, 575 Hudson Street near West 11th Street; (646) 638-2900; www.dublin6nyc.com.
Gstaad, 43 West 26th; (212) 683-1440; www.gstaadnyc.com.
Warsaw Bar and Bistro, 261 Driggs Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn; (718) 387-0505; www.warsawconcerts.com.
The Rome Fastener Corporation, 24 West 25th Street; (212) 741-9779; www.romefast.com.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 20, 2008
The Weekend in New York column on Page 11 of the Travel section this weekend, about finding places in the city that evoke Europe, carries an outdated reference to the restaurant Provence in Greenwich Village. After the article went to press on Monday, the restaurant announced that it is closing today. (The owners will reopen the restaurant in May as Hundred Acres, with a rustic, farm-focused menu.)
read more here
Published: April 20, 2008
Correction Appended
SURE, you could visit Europe, but it’s just so darn inconvenient. The exchange rate turns you into a pauper, portions are minuscule, people smoke a lot, good bagels are practically nonexistent. Neither Greyhound nor Amtrak stop there. What kind of a tourist attraction is that?
So consider the advantages of a European weekend in New York. The city is more European than you think: where else could you dine on Bosnian sausage in (the Cevabdzinica) Sarajevo (restaurant), then take a 20-minute train ride to (the) Paris (Theater) for French film? A MetroCard costs a tiny fraction of what a Eurail pass does, but lets you visit most major tourist destinations in Europe (O.K., places named after them) without leaving the city.
First, a hotel: At the London NYC on West 54th Street, where the formal restaurant is called Gordon Ramsay at the London, the London suites start at $399 a night and the London atrium suite is $3,999 a night. Are those prices London enough for you?
Staying there for the Travel section last year, the Times’s restaurant critic Frank Bruni was impressed by the size of the rooms and the “smartly and indulgently up-to-the-minute space” (and the mirrored French doors — a bonus country!). In a separate review, he gave the restaurant two stars.
It’s only a short walk from the London to the Paris, where French movies attract a French and Francophile crowd that knows how to throw around a “formidable” or two and is clearly no stranger to the accent aigu. Now playing is “Flight of the Red Balloon,” which won a gleaming review from the Times’s Manohla Dargis. If you disagree and get bored, slip into the lobby and try to name the French actors (Bardot, Depardieu and the like) pictured there.
From the theater, it’s a pleasant walk along Parque Central to the Shops at Columbus Circle, where you’ll find Face Stockholm, the Swedish cosmetics store, and Davidoff of Geneva, which hawks cigars and even provides a minilounge to smoke them in.
Though it might be tempting to stop by a frankfurter salesman on the street corner, just head down 10th Avenue a few blocks for dinner at Hallo Berlin, an informal beer-guzzling place where the pork chops are tender, the tablecloths are gingham and the beer garden is open. If you don’t like their great beer selection, you can always order from their fun-to-pronounce list of brandies: Kirschwasser, Himbeergeist, Pflumi.
To loosen your tongue after this polysyllabic meal, it’s a quick walk to the Barcelona Bar, an otherwise ordinary watering hole that offers over 100 specialty shots, something like what you might find in Barcelona itself. If you are willing to sacrifice taste to keep the European theme going, try las Ramblas (grenadine, lime and tequila) or the Mussolini (Southern Comfort and Amaretto). Or just have a Peroni beer.
There’s lots more downtown. Cafe de Bruxelles on (bonus) Greenwich Avenue is a mussels-and-fries-with-no-ketchup kind of place in the West Village that attracts a crowd of regulars, including a high ratio of adorable elderly couples who look as if they’d have grown plump on the mayonnaisey dip and the crème brûlée tart.
You’ll no longer be able to visit Provence in Greenwich Village, which is closing Sunday (the owners plan to reopen the restaurant in May as Hundred Acres, serving rustic, farm-focused food). But you can try Régate, a little bistro on the Lower East Side named for France’s Île de Ré. You can try the mouclade de la couarde (mussels with saffron and cream) or the bourride rétaise à la lotte (monkfish), near replicas of the traditional dishes you’d find on the real island. (Or maybe not, but if you make a comment like that, few will be qualified to call you on it.)
If Italy’s more to your taste, you might head to Old Venice, actually Antica Venezia, a restaurant in the far West Village, or Firenze on the Upper East Side.
Afterward, you could check out Dublin 6, a West Village bar with a nice beer selection (little of which is Irish). But for those hankering for the Swiss Alps, there’s Gstaad, where skiers zoom down treacherous slopes (on a video projected on a wall in Chelsea), and the good-looking crowd lounges on minimalist ski-resort furniture.
Finally, for that classic combination of rock music and kielbasa, head to Warsaw, a cavernous club in the Polish National Home in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
If you’re still around on Monday morning, how about one more touch of Italy. The Rome Fastener Corporation showroom on West 25th Street may be short on the farfalle, but you won’t find grommets and eyelets like these on the Adriatic. And you won’t pay in euros, either.
NO EUROS NEEDED (OR ACCEPTED)
Cevabdzinica Sarajevo, 37-18 34th Avenue, Astoria, Queens; (718) 752-9528.
London NYC, 151 West 54th Street; (866) 690-2029; www.londonnyc.com.
Paris Theater, 4 West 58th Street; (212) 688-3800; www.theparistheatre.com; tickets $11.
Face Stockholm, 10 Columbus Circle, Ground Floor; (212) 823-9415; www.facestockholm.com.
Davidoff of Geneva, 10 Columbus Circle, Ground Floor; (212) 823-6383; www.davidoff.com.
Hallo Berlin, 624 10th Avenue at 44th Street; (212) 977-1944; www.halloberlinrestaurant.com.
Barcelona Bar, 923 Eighth Avenue near 55th Street; (212) 245-3212; www.barcelonabarnyc.com.
Cafe de Bruxelles, 118 Greenwich Avenue at 13th Street; (212) 206-1830; www.cafedebruxelles.com.
Régate, 198 Orchard Street at East Houston; (212) 228-8555; www.regate-bistro.com.
Antica Venezia, 396 West Street at 10th Street, (212) 229-0606; www.avnyc.com.
Firenze, 1594 Second Avenue at 82nd Street; (212) 861-9368.
Dublin 6, 575 Hudson Street near West 11th Street; (646) 638-2900; www.dublin6nyc.com.
Gstaad, 43 West 26th; (212) 683-1440; www.gstaadnyc.com.
Warsaw Bar and Bistro, 261 Driggs Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn; (718) 387-0505; www.warsawconcerts.com.
The Rome Fastener Corporation, 24 West 25th Street; (212) 741-9779; www.romefast.com.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 20, 2008
The Weekend in New York column on Page 11 of the Travel section this weekend, about finding places in the city that evoke Europe, carries an outdated reference to the restaurant Provence in Greenwich Village. After the article went to press on Monday, the restaurant announced that it is closing today. (The owners will reopen the restaurant in May as Hundred Acres, with a rustic, farm-focused menu.)
read more here
36 Hours: 36 Hours in London
By SARAH LYALL
Published: April 20, 2008
Correction Appended
THERE are many different Londons, and they appeal to people with many different passions: museum lovers, theatergoers, opera buffs, devotees of royalty, students of history, people who like to walk in the rain. But richest of all, perhaps, is the London for book lovers.
Because the city is the star and the backdrop of so much great literature, it is possible to believe you know it intimately — how it looks, how it feels — without ever leaving your home country, or indeed your home. But it is better to visit, if only for the joy of seeing the landscape of your imagination come to life. How thrilling to happen upon Pudding Lane, where a bakery mishap led to the Great Fire of 1666, after reading Pepys’s account in his diaries. Or to wander along Baker Street, where Sherlock Holmes once fictionally solved the unsolvable. Walk across London Bridge and gaze down, toward Southwark Bridge: this is the stretch of the Thames where Dickens’s sinister characters dredged up corpses in “Our Mutual Friend.”
The city is not so foggy as it was in 1952, when Margery Allingham published “The Tiger in the Smoke,” or as socially stratified as it when Marianne Dashwood waited in “Sense afnd Sensibility” for a suitor who never called; or as greedy as it was in the thrusting 1980s of Martin Amis’s “Money.” But it is all of those Londons, an accrual of different descriptions and eras. It is a city made for description — reread the first passages of “Bleak House,” also on the subject of fog, for a moody introduction — and one that so reveres its authors that it buried a number of the best ones in style, in Westminster Abbey.
There are plenty of organized literary-themed excursions around the city, easily found on the Internet. Or you can ramble idiosyncratically on your own, which is more fun. If you take the Tube or the bus, make sure to carry a book.
Friday
6 p.m.
1) WILDE NIGHTS
Check into the Cadogan Hotel (75 Sloane Street SW1; 44-207-235-7141; www.cadogan.com), where Oscar Wilde was arrested and charged with “committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons” in 1895 over his liaison with young Lord Alfred Douglas. Elegant, quiet and also a favorite spot of the actress Lillie Langtry, the hotel is in the heart of Knightsbridge, where there is plenty of shopping to leaven even the most serious intellectual pursuit. Poems to read at the bar: John Betjeman’s “Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel,” which dramatically lays out the scene, and Wilde’s heartbreaking work “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” written after he served the prison sentence that broke and ultimately killed him. A double room is £295, or $581 at $2.01 to the pound.
8 p.m.
2) ELEMENTARY, DEAR HOLMES
The Sherlock Holmes pub (10-11 Northumberland Street WC2; 44-207-930-2644; www.sherlockholmespub.com) may be slightly kitschy, but it has an authentically musty-without-being-dingy ambience, enthusiastic service and generous portions of traditional pub food. Enjoy dishes with names plucked from the works of Holmes’s creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — “The Sign of Four,” for instance, signifies the soup of the day, while “Hounds of the Baskerville” refers to toad in the hole, or sausages in Yorkshire pudding — in an upstairs dining room decorated with pictures of the masterful fictional detective. A three-course meal for two is about £46. The pièce de résistance is a meticulously reconstructed study decorated à la Holmes. It looks as if he has just stepped out for a second, laying down his cup of tea and his violin.
Saturday
10 a.m.
3) LAZY MORNINGS
Have breakfast in bed while reading Zadie Smith’s “White Teeth,” an exuberant hymn to a vibrantly multiracial modern-day London. Or, if you’re motivated, head to the fifth-floor cafe at Harvey Nichols (109-125 Knightsbridge SW1; 44-207-235-5250; www.harveynichols.com) for eggs Benedict and interesting hot chocolate (£12.50).
Noon
4) BOOKS FOR ALL SEASONS
Authors wailed and gnashed their teeth when the history-laden old British Library Reading Room was uprooted from the British Museum and plunked down in a modern brick building on a busy road near St. Pancras and King’s Cross railroad stations (96 Euston Road NW1; 44-870-444-1500). But what the library might lack in atmosphere it more than makes up with the Sir John Ritblat Gallery, where some of the greatest treasures of the written word in fiction and nonfiction are exhibited.
The collection includes much-scribbled-on first drafts of works by authors like James Joyce, and treasures like a 600-or-so-years-old manuscript of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” one of the first illustrated works of literature in the English language. There is also an original copy of Magna Carta, one of four in existence; the crumpled piece of paper on which John Lennon scrawled the first lyrics to the song “Help” (here you learn that the line “I do appreciate your being ‘round” was first written as “I would appreciate your being ‘round”); and the 11th-century will of Aethelstan the Atheling, son of Aethelred the Unready. (He left his worldly goods to, among other people, his friends Aethelweard the Stammerer and Godwine the Driveller.)
3 p.m.
5) A LEXICOGRAPHER’S DELIGHT
As you walk around, you can spot all the blue plaques telling you which writer lived where (there were William Makepeace Thackeray, Ezra Pound, James Joyce and T. S. Eliot, for instance, all living at some point in west London). For a peek inside a writer’s home, go to Dr. Johnson’s house (17 Gough Square EC4; 44-207-353-3745; www.drjohnsonshouse.org), a little gem of a place tucked in a quiet spot near to, but worlds away from, the bustle of Fleet Street. Here Samuel Johnson, critic, essayist and aphorist, worked in the mid-1700s on his famous English dictionary — an effort, he explained in his comma-heavy introduction, to regularize a language that had been “hitherto neglected, suffered to spread, under the direction of chance, into wild exuberance, resigned to the tyranny of time and fashion, and exposed to the corruptions of ignorance, and caprices of innovation.”
How Johnson went about such an imposing undertaking is explained in easy-to-digest room-by-room exhibits, culminating in the attic, where a team of clerks sorted through potential words and their sharp, opinionated meanings. Visitors are allowed to leaf through one of the original dictionaries, published in two volumes in 1755, and find for themselves Johnson’s wry definition of a lexicographer as a “harmless drudge.” (Further investigation shows the truth in the story that Johnson really did define oats as “a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.”)
5 p.m.
6) A WALK OF ONE’S OWN
In Virginia Woolf’s novel “Mrs. Dalloway,” the well-heeled heroine takes a long, contemplative walk through central London, pondering everything from flowers to life itself. Follow along and take in the changing of the seasons — you can tell what time of year it is not only by the blossoms (or lack of them) on the trees in St. James’s Park, but also by the migratory ducks, and the number of ducklings, on hand at any time. Bring a book — maybe “The Hours,” Michael Cunningham’s reinterpretation of the novel — to read quietly on a bench in the park, near the pelicans.
8 p.m.
7) VANITY FAIR
Treat yourself to dinner at the Wolseley (160 Piccadilly W1; 44-207-499-6996; www.thewolseley.com), a glamorous restaurant near the Ritz Hotel beloved by more social members of the London literati. Housed in a large, high-ceilinged space whose previous incarnations include a bank and car showroom, the restaurant has been meticulously refitted to evoke a sophisticated old-word Viennese cafe. The layout gives a feeling of tête-à-tête intimacy while also providing lots of people-watching opportunities. The menu is impeccable — leave room for the rich, beautiful desserts — and its old-fashioned tenor perfectly suits the setting. A three-course dinner is £50 to £100. Alert diners might well catch a glimpse of, among others, the authors Lady Antonia Fraser and Harold Pinter.
Sunday
10 a.m.
8) ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE
Go south to Shakespeare’s Globe (22 New Globe Walk SE1; 44-207-902-1400; www.shakespeares-globe.org), a loving reconstruction of a real-life Elizabethan theater. The season runs only during the warmer months, but the theater houses a permanent exhibition devoted to the playwright’s life and times that includes a rotating case of archival material, like the famous will in which “Shakespeare” was spelled three different ways, leaving to posterity a permanent spelling conundrum.
12:30 p.m.
9) ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
It’s only a short walk to lunch at the George Inn (77 Borough High Street; 44-207-407-2056) a 17th-century coaching inn that is now the only galleried pub — meaning that it has balconies — left in the city. The menu is modern; the ambience is noisy in the downstairs bar, and quieter in the upstairs dining room. Dinner for two is about £45. It’s hard to resist the urge to stand on one of the balconies and shout things — lines from “Romeo and Juliet,” perhaps? — at the people below. Dickens was an enthusiastic patron of the George and mentions it in “Little Dorrit,” which would be a fine choice of reading material, either to read to yourself or aloud to your companion over lunch.
THE BASICS
A number of airlines, including American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways, fly nonstop between Kennedy or Newark airports and London’s two main international hubs, Heathrow and Gatwick. Fares for travel in late May were around $580 in a recent Internet search.
Express trains run from both airports to the center of town. The Heathrow Express to Paddington is £14.50, or $28.70 at $2.01 to the pound, and from Gatwick to Victoria it’s £16.90. A nonexpress train from Gatwick to Victoria is £8.90, and the Underground from Heathrow is £5.
London is expensive, and one way to save money is to use taxis sparingly. A cab from Heathrow to the city, for example, is between £45 and £70, and from Gatwick, it’s about £85.
If it is not raining, try to walk as much as you can — wear comfortable shoes and invest in a London A-Z map to help navigate the complicated layout. Or else take the Tube. Buy an Oyster Card for discounted fares.
Correction: April 27, 2008
The 36 Hours column last Sunday about London misidentified the member of the Beatles who scrawled on a piece of paper the first lyrics to the song “Help!,” part of the collection at the British Library Reading Room. It was John Lennon, not Paul McCartney. The column also misstated the years during which Samuel Johnson worked on his famous English dictionary. It was published in 1755; he did not work on it in the mid-1800s.
read more here
Published: April 20, 2008
Correction Appended
THERE are many different Londons, and they appeal to people with many different passions: museum lovers, theatergoers, opera buffs, devotees of royalty, students of history, people who like to walk in the rain. But richest of all, perhaps, is the London for book lovers.
Because the city is the star and the backdrop of so much great literature, it is possible to believe you know it intimately — how it looks, how it feels — without ever leaving your home country, or indeed your home. But it is better to visit, if only for the joy of seeing the landscape of your imagination come to life. How thrilling to happen upon Pudding Lane, where a bakery mishap led to the Great Fire of 1666, after reading Pepys’s account in his diaries. Or to wander along Baker Street, where Sherlock Holmes once fictionally solved the unsolvable. Walk across London Bridge and gaze down, toward Southwark Bridge: this is the stretch of the Thames where Dickens’s sinister characters dredged up corpses in “Our Mutual Friend.”
The city is not so foggy as it was in 1952, when Margery Allingham published “The Tiger in the Smoke,” or as socially stratified as it when Marianne Dashwood waited in “Sense afnd Sensibility” for a suitor who never called; or as greedy as it was in the thrusting 1980s of Martin Amis’s “Money.” But it is all of those Londons, an accrual of different descriptions and eras. It is a city made for description — reread the first passages of “Bleak House,” also on the subject of fog, for a moody introduction — and one that so reveres its authors that it buried a number of the best ones in style, in Westminster Abbey.
There are plenty of organized literary-themed excursions around the city, easily found on the Internet. Or you can ramble idiosyncratically on your own, which is more fun. If you take the Tube or the bus, make sure to carry a book.
Friday
6 p.m.
1) WILDE NIGHTS
Check into the Cadogan Hotel (75 Sloane Street SW1; 44-207-235-7141; www.cadogan.com), where Oscar Wilde was arrested and charged with “committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons” in 1895 over his liaison with young Lord Alfred Douglas. Elegant, quiet and also a favorite spot of the actress Lillie Langtry, the hotel is in the heart of Knightsbridge, where there is plenty of shopping to leaven even the most serious intellectual pursuit. Poems to read at the bar: John Betjeman’s “Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel,” which dramatically lays out the scene, and Wilde’s heartbreaking work “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” written after he served the prison sentence that broke and ultimately killed him. A double room is £295, or $581 at $2.01 to the pound.
8 p.m.
2) ELEMENTARY, DEAR HOLMES
The Sherlock Holmes pub (10-11 Northumberland Street WC2; 44-207-930-2644; www.sherlockholmespub.com) may be slightly kitschy, but it has an authentically musty-without-being-dingy ambience, enthusiastic service and generous portions of traditional pub food. Enjoy dishes with names plucked from the works of Holmes’s creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — “The Sign of Four,” for instance, signifies the soup of the day, while “Hounds of the Baskerville” refers to toad in the hole, or sausages in Yorkshire pudding — in an upstairs dining room decorated with pictures of the masterful fictional detective. A three-course meal for two is about £46. The pièce de résistance is a meticulously reconstructed study decorated à la Holmes. It looks as if he has just stepped out for a second, laying down his cup of tea and his violin.
Saturday
10 a.m.
3) LAZY MORNINGS
Have breakfast in bed while reading Zadie Smith’s “White Teeth,” an exuberant hymn to a vibrantly multiracial modern-day London. Or, if you’re motivated, head to the fifth-floor cafe at Harvey Nichols (109-125 Knightsbridge SW1; 44-207-235-5250; www.harveynichols.com) for eggs Benedict and interesting hot chocolate (£12.50).
Noon
4) BOOKS FOR ALL SEASONS
Authors wailed and gnashed their teeth when the history-laden old British Library Reading Room was uprooted from the British Museum and plunked down in a modern brick building on a busy road near St. Pancras and King’s Cross railroad stations (96 Euston Road NW1; 44-870-444-1500). But what the library might lack in atmosphere it more than makes up with the Sir John Ritblat Gallery, where some of the greatest treasures of the written word in fiction and nonfiction are exhibited.
The collection includes much-scribbled-on first drafts of works by authors like James Joyce, and treasures like a 600-or-so-years-old manuscript of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” one of the first illustrated works of literature in the English language. There is also an original copy of Magna Carta, one of four in existence; the crumpled piece of paper on which John Lennon scrawled the first lyrics to the song “Help” (here you learn that the line “I do appreciate your being ‘round” was first written as “I would appreciate your being ‘round”); and the 11th-century will of Aethelstan the Atheling, son of Aethelred the Unready. (He left his worldly goods to, among other people, his friends Aethelweard the Stammerer and Godwine the Driveller.)
3 p.m.
5) A LEXICOGRAPHER’S DELIGHT
As you walk around, you can spot all the blue plaques telling you which writer lived where (there were William Makepeace Thackeray, Ezra Pound, James Joyce and T. S. Eliot, for instance, all living at some point in west London). For a peek inside a writer’s home, go to Dr. Johnson’s house (17 Gough Square EC4; 44-207-353-3745; www.drjohnsonshouse.org), a little gem of a place tucked in a quiet spot near to, but worlds away from, the bustle of Fleet Street. Here Samuel Johnson, critic, essayist and aphorist, worked in the mid-1700s on his famous English dictionary — an effort, he explained in his comma-heavy introduction, to regularize a language that had been “hitherto neglected, suffered to spread, under the direction of chance, into wild exuberance, resigned to the tyranny of time and fashion, and exposed to the corruptions of ignorance, and caprices of innovation.”
How Johnson went about such an imposing undertaking is explained in easy-to-digest room-by-room exhibits, culminating in the attic, where a team of clerks sorted through potential words and their sharp, opinionated meanings. Visitors are allowed to leaf through one of the original dictionaries, published in two volumes in 1755, and find for themselves Johnson’s wry definition of a lexicographer as a “harmless drudge.” (Further investigation shows the truth in the story that Johnson really did define oats as “a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.”)
5 p.m.
6) A WALK OF ONE’S OWN
In Virginia Woolf’s novel “Mrs. Dalloway,” the well-heeled heroine takes a long, contemplative walk through central London, pondering everything from flowers to life itself. Follow along and take in the changing of the seasons — you can tell what time of year it is not only by the blossoms (or lack of them) on the trees in St. James’s Park, but also by the migratory ducks, and the number of ducklings, on hand at any time. Bring a book — maybe “The Hours,” Michael Cunningham’s reinterpretation of the novel — to read quietly on a bench in the park, near the pelicans.
8 p.m.
7) VANITY FAIR
Treat yourself to dinner at the Wolseley (160 Piccadilly W1; 44-207-499-6996; www.thewolseley.com), a glamorous restaurant near the Ritz Hotel beloved by more social members of the London literati. Housed in a large, high-ceilinged space whose previous incarnations include a bank and car showroom, the restaurant has been meticulously refitted to evoke a sophisticated old-word Viennese cafe. The layout gives a feeling of tête-à-tête intimacy while also providing lots of people-watching opportunities. The menu is impeccable — leave room for the rich, beautiful desserts — and its old-fashioned tenor perfectly suits the setting. A three-course dinner is £50 to £100. Alert diners might well catch a glimpse of, among others, the authors Lady Antonia Fraser and Harold Pinter.
Sunday
10 a.m.
8) ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE
Go south to Shakespeare’s Globe (22 New Globe Walk SE1; 44-207-902-1400; www.shakespeares-globe.org), a loving reconstruction of a real-life Elizabethan theater. The season runs only during the warmer months, but the theater houses a permanent exhibition devoted to the playwright’s life and times that includes a rotating case of archival material, like the famous will in which “Shakespeare” was spelled three different ways, leaving to posterity a permanent spelling conundrum.
12:30 p.m.
9) ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
It’s only a short walk to lunch at the George Inn (77 Borough High Street; 44-207-407-2056) a 17th-century coaching inn that is now the only galleried pub — meaning that it has balconies — left in the city. The menu is modern; the ambience is noisy in the downstairs bar, and quieter in the upstairs dining room. Dinner for two is about £45. It’s hard to resist the urge to stand on one of the balconies and shout things — lines from “Romeo and Juliet,” perhaps? — at the people below. Dickens was an enthusiastic patron of the George and mentions it in “Little Dorrit,” which would be a fine choice of reading material, either to read to yourself or aloud to your companion over lunch.
THE BASICS
A number of airlines, including American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways, fly nonstop between Kennedy or Newark airports and London’s two main international hubs, Heathrow and Gatwick. Fares for travel in late May were around $580 in a recent Internet search.
Express trains run from both airports to the center of town. The Heathrow Express to Paddington is £14.50, or $28.70 at $2.01 to the pound, and from Gatwick to Victoria it’s £16.90. A nonexpress train from Gatwick to Victoria is £8.90, and the Underground from Heathrow is £5.
London is expensive, and one way to save money is to use taxis sparingly. A cab from Heathrow to the city, for example, is between £45 and £70, and from Gatwick, it’s about £85.
If it is not raining, try to walk as much as you can — wear comfortable shoes and invest in a London A-Z map to help navigate the complicated layout. Or else take the Tube. Buy an Oyster Card for discounted fares.
Correction: April 27, 2008
The 36 Hours column last Sunday about London misidentified the member of the Beatles who scrawled on a piece of paper the first lyrics to the song “Help!,” part of the collection at the British Library Reading Room. It was John Lennon, not Paul McCartney. The column also misstated the years during which Samuel Johnson worked on his famous English dictionary. It was published in 1755; he did not work on it in the mid-1800s.
read more here
After Midnight in 10 European Cities
Whether it's lingering over a glass of absinthe in a smoky Barcelona bar, exploring a London market at 4 a.m. or simply taking a stroll down Venice's curiously quiet nocturnal streets, Europe's after-midnight pleasures are many and diverse. Ten contributors to The New York Times Travel Section reveal their favorite late-night activities.
Athens
High on a Hill, With an Acropolis View
By JOANNA KAKISSIS
Late night is what electrifies the view from Lycabettus Hill, with the Parthenon glowing like a crown jewel.
Barcelona
Absinthe and Atmosphere
By LISA ABEND
There is no shortage of late-night places in Barcelona, but 200-year-old Marsella feels more late-night than most.
Berlin
On This Stage, Every Dancer Is a Player
By ANDREAS TZORTZIS
At Clärchen’s Ballhaus you can dance a tango on parquet floors, grind to James Brown or drink wine in the haunted atmosphere of the Mirror Salon.
Copenhagen
Late at Night, Wholesomeness Sleeps
By SETH SHERWOOD
When the rustic charms of Copenhagen become too cloying, a gorgeously debauched side of the city awaits in its myriad dive bars.
Lisbon
A House of Soulful Songs
By SETH SHERWOOD
When night settles over Lisbon, the city’s venerable fado houses come alive.
London
Early in the Morning Where the Working Class Works
By JENNIFER CONLIN
At 4 or 5 a.m., New Covent Garden offers a glimpse of another side of London.
Moscow
An All-Nighter With a Good Book or Two
By SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY
These days even bookstores are staying open round the clock, doing justice to Russia’s historical love of literature.
Paris
Cue and Rack, and Maybe a Gin Fizz
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
You can dine late and well near Les Halles before heading to a former 19th-century gambler’s haunt for a game of pool.
Prague
A Movable Fest
By EVAN RAIL
Party hard on a traditional Prague tram — replete with D.J.’s and two mobile bars — before moving on to your next stop.
Venice
Wandering Hushed, Dimly Lit Passageways
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
There is no better way to allow Venice’s intrinsic beauty to cast its spell than to wander its dark, quiet byways
read more here
Athens
High on a Hill, With an Acropolis View
By JOANNA KAKISSIS
Late night is what electrifies the view from Lycabettus Hill, with the Parthenon glowing like a crown jewel.
Barcelona
Absinthe and Atmosphere
By LISA ABEND
There is no shortage of late-night places in Barcelona, but 200-year-old Marsella feels more late-night than most.
Berlin
On This Stage, Every Dancer Is a Player
By ANDREAS TZORTZIS
At Clärchen’s Ballhaus you can dance a tango on parquet floors, grind to James Brown or drink wine in the haunted atmosphere of the Mirror Salon.
Copenhagen
Late at Night, Wholesomeness Sleeps
By SETH SHERWOOD
When the rustic charms of Copenhagen become too cloying, a gorgeously debauched side of the city awaits in its myriad dive bars.
Lisbon
A House of Soulful Songs
By SETH SHERWOOD
When night settles over Lisbon, the city’s venerable fado houses come alive.
London
Early in the Morning Where the Working Class Works
By JENNIFER CONLIN
At 4 or 5 a.m., New Covent Garden offers a glimpse of another side of London.
Moscow
An All-Nighter With a Good Book or Two
By SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY
These days even bookstores are staying open round the clock, doing justice to Russia’s historical love of literature.
Paris
Cue and Rack, and Maybe a Gin Fizz
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
You can dine late and well near Les Halles before heading to a former 19th-century gambler’s haunt for a game of pool.
Prague
A Movable Fest
By EVAN RAIL
Party hard on a traditional Prague tram — replete with D.J.’s and two mobile bars — before moving on to your next stop.
Venice
Wandering Hushed, Dimly Lit Passageways
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
There is no better way to allow Venice’s intrinsic beauty to cast its spell than to wander its dark, quiet byways
read more here
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Tour Eiffel
New York Times Review
The crowning pleasure of this landmark is the view that unfolds at 377 feet above Paris, the crystal roof of the Grand Palais, Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, Sacré-Coeur, the Invalides, the Panthéon, St.-Sulpice — all these famous monuments laid out in a visual feast. You see in detail how Paris has preserved its ancient core, cleverly consigning the architectural gems or monstrosities of the late 20th century to the city’s outer reaches, where they cannot sully the wonder of the heart. You appreciate, too, the hint of the Mediterranean that is part of Paris’s lure: the buildings are pale, like many across Southern Europe, with streets running like dark rivulets across the cityscape.
Readers' Reviews »Read the Full Article »
Frommer's Review
This is without doubt one of the most recognizable structures in the world. Weighing 7,000 tons, but exerting about the same pressure on the ground as an average-size person sitting in a chair, the wrought-iron tower wasn't meant to be permanent. Gustave-Alexandre Eiffel, the French engineer whose fame rested mainly on his iron bridges, built it for the 1889 Universal Exhibition. (Eiffel also designed the framework for the Statue of Liberty.) Praised by some and denounced by others (some called it a "giraffe," the "world's greatest lamppost," or the "iron monster"), the tower created as much controversy in the 1880s as I. M. Pei's glass pyramid at the Louvre did in the 1980s. What saved it from demolition was the advent of radio -- as the tallest structure in Europe, it made a perfect spot to place a radio antenna (now a TV antenna).
The tower, including its TV antenna, is 317m (1,040 ft.) high. On a clear day you can see it from 65km (40 miles) away. An open-framework construction, the tower unlocked the almost unlimited possibilities of steel construction, paving the way for skyscrapers. Skeptics said it couldn't be built, and Eiffel actually wanted to make it soar higher. For years it remained the tallest man-made structure on earth, until skyscrapers such as the Empire State Building surpassed it.
We could fill an entire page with tower statistics. (Its plans spanned 5,400 sq. m/18,000 sq. ft. of paper, and it contains 2.5 million rivets.) But forget the numbers. Just stand beneath the tower, and look straight up. It's like a rocket of steel lacework shooting into the sky.
In 2004 it became possible to ice-skate inside the Eiffel Tower, doing figure eights while taking in views of the rooftops of Paris. Skating takes place on an observation deck 57m (188 ft.) above ground. The rectangular rink is a bit larger than an average tennis court, holding 80 skaters at once -- half the capacity of New York City's Rockefeller Center rink. Rink admission and skate rental are free, once you pay the initial entry fee below.
To get to Le Jules Verne (tel. 01-45-55-61-44), the second-platform restaurant, take the private south foundation elevator. You can enjoy an aperitif in the piano bar and then take a seat at one of the dining room's tables, all of which provide an inspiring view. The menu changes seasonally, offering fish and meat dishes that range from filet of turbot with seaweed and buttered sea urchins to veal chops with truffled vegetables. Reservations are recommended.
Time Out at the Tower -- To see the Eiffel Tower best, don't sprint -- approach it gradually. We suggest taking the Métro to the Trocadéro stop and walking from the Palais de Chaillot to the Seine to get the full effect of the tower and its surroundings; then cross the pont d'Iéna and head for the base, where you'll find elevators in two of the pillars -- expect long lines. (When the tower is open, you can see the 1889 lift machinery in the east and west pillars.) You visit the tower in three stages: The first landing provides a view over the rooftops, as well as a cinema museum showing films, restaurants, and a bar. The second landing offers a panoramic look at the city. The third landing gives the most spectacular view; Eiffel's office has been re-created on this level, with wax figures depicting the engineer receiving Thomas Edison.
Tour Eiffel Bargain -- The least expensive way to see the Tour Eiffel (www.tour-eiffel.fr) is to walk up the first two floors at a cost of 7.80€ ($10; 4.50€/$5.85 first floor). That way, you also avoid the long lines waiting for the elevator -- although the views are less spectacular from this platform. If you dine at the tower's own Altitude 95 (tel. 01-45-55-20-04), an Eiffel restaurant on the first floor, management allows patrons to cut to the head of the line
read more here
The crowning pleasure of this landmark is the view that unfolds at 377 feet above Paris, the crystal roof of the Grand Palais, Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, Sacré-Coeur, the Invalides, the Panthéon, St.-Sulpice — all these famous monuments laid out in a visual feast. You see in detail how Paris has preserved its ancient core, cleverly consigning the architectural gems or monstrosities of the late 20th century to the city’s outer reaches, where they cannot sully the wonder of the heart. You appreciate, too, the hint of the Mediterranean that is part of Paris’s lure: the buildings are pale, like many across Southern Europe, with streets running like dark rivulets across the cityscape.
Readers' Reviews »Read the Full Article »
Frommer's Review
This is without doubt one of the most recognizable structures in the world. Weighing 7,000 tons, but exerting about the same pressure on the ground as an average-size person sitting in a chair, the wrought-iron tower wasn't meant to be permanent. Gustave-Alexandre Eiffel, the French engineer whose fame rested mainly on his iron bridges, built it for the 1889 Universal Exhibition. (Eiffel also designed the framework for the Statue of Liberty.) Praised by some and denounced by others (some called it a "giraffe," the "world's greatest lamppost," or the "iron monster"), the tower created as much controversy in the 1880s as I. M. Pei's glass pyramid at the Louvre did in the 1980s. What saved it from demolition was the advent of radio -- as the tallest structure in Europe, it made a perfect spot to place a radio antenna (now a TV antenna).
The tower, including its TV antenna, is 317m (1,040 ft.) high. On a clear day you can see it from 65km (40 miles) away. An open-framework construction, the tower unlocked the almost unlimited possibilities of steel construction, paving the way for skyscrapers. Skeptics said it couldn't be built, and Eiffel actually wanted to make it soar higher. For years it remained the tallest man-made structure on earth, until skyscrapers such as the Empire State Building surpassed it.
We could fill an entire page with tower statistics. (Its plans spanned 5,400 sq. m/18,000 sq. ft. of paper, and it contains 2.5 million rivets.) But forget the numbers. Just stand beneath the tower, and look straight up. It's like a rocket of steel lacework shooting into the sky.
In 2004 it became possible to ice-skate inside the Eiffel Tower, doing figure eights while taking in views of the rooftops of Paris. Skating takes place on an observation deck 57m (188 ft.) above ground. The rectangular rink is a bit larger than an average tennis court, holding 80 skaters at once -- half the capacity of New York City's Rockefeller Center rink. Rink admission and skate rental are free, once you pay the initial entry fee below.
To get to Le Jules Verne (tel. 01-45-55-61-44), the second-platform restaurant, take the private south foundation elevator. You can enjoy an aperitif in the piano bar and then take a seat at one of the dining room's tables, all of which provide an inspiring view. The menu changes seasonally, offering fish and meat dishes that range from filet of turbot with seaweed and buttered sea urchins to veal chops with truffled vegetables. Reservations are recommended.
Time Out at the Tower -- To see the Eiffel Tower best, don't sprint -- approach it gradually. We suggest taking the Métro to the Trocadéro stop and walking from the Palais de Chaillot to the Seine to get the full effect of the tower and its surroundings; then cross the pont d'Iéna and head for the base, where you'll find elevators in two of the pillars -- expect long lines. (When the tower is open, you can see the 1889 lift machinery in the east and west pillars.) You visit the tower in three stages: The first landing provides a view over the rooftops, as well as a cinema museum showing films, restaurants, and a bar. The second landing offers a panoramic look at the city. The third landing gives the most spectacular view; Eiffel's office has been re-created on this level, with wax figures depicting the engineer receiving Thomas Edison.
Tour Eiffel Bargain -- The least expensive way to see the Tour Eiffel (www.tour-eiffel.fr) is to walk up the first two floors at a cost of 7.80€ ($10; 4.50€/$5.85 first floor). That way, you also avoid the long lines waiting for the elevator -- although the views are less spectacular from this platform. If you dine at the tower's own Altitude 95 (tel. 01-45-55-20-04), an Eiffel restaurant on the first floor, management allows patrons to cut to the head of the line
read more here
Rome at Night
There’s death in every open window as you pass along at night,” he wrote some 1,800 years ago. “You may well be deemed a fool, improvident of sudden accident, if you go out to dinner without having made your will.”
Dinner is perfectly safe these days, with street crime low and sewage securely underground. Night now does not really darken Rome so much as illuminate the many parts that matter, a real-life chiaroscuro of the city where Caravaggio lived and painted. With the daytime heat cut in summer, diners at Da Giggetto in the Jewish Ghetto can ponder both their artichokes and the boney, floodlit columns of the Octavian Gate, which stood there a century and a half before Christ was born. Not far away, the Colosseum — where Enlightenment-age tourists wandered at night with notions of Rome maybe even more romantic than ours — rises with singular heft, each stone arch glowing in the night.
Rome at night is, in short, a city lit like a theater, and, especially in the warmer months, should be enjoyed like one. In fact, Georgina Masson, who wrote the 1965 classic “Companion Guide to Rome,” recommended the night as the time Rome should first be seen. The first of her book’s walking tours starts where Rome began, the Capitoline Hill — where Michelangelo designed a piazza, she said, like a “stage set” — overlooking the nubby ruins of the Forum. “Seen by day it requires something of the knowledge of the archaeologist and the imagination of a poet,” she wrote. “But at night ... it is not nearly so difficult to picture the stately ranks of colonnaded temples crowned with the gilded statues and the basilicas rearing their great hulk against the night sky.”
It’s hardly a new thought (it is literally one of the oldest), but in my nearly four years here as the bureau chief of The New York Times, I have found that there is no better place than Capitoline Hill to see, in one dramatic sweep, so much of Rome’s history — especially, as Ms. Masson advises, if one starts at sunset.
A superb walk through time might start on the far side of the hill, on Via dei Fori Imperiali. To the south, the Colosseum glows. Up Via di San Pietro in Carcere is Michelangelo’s Piazza del Campidoglio, with a replica of the equestrian statue of the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius (the original is in the Capitoline Museum) unlit but no less heroic at night, a lone horseman in the center of the city, as has often been noted, at the center of the world. If the Forum is antiquity, the egg-shaped piazza and three palaces are among the finest of Renaissance buildings, stripped of detail at night, revealing more their harmony and, if you are that sort, romance.
A walk down Michelangelo’s steps leads to more of this mix of ages: across the street stands the mini-Colosseum of the Theater of Marcellus, and to the right, the ruins of the Octavian Gate. Here, as elsewhere in Rome, the approach to lighting seems much like Italy’s approach to food: there is so much to work with that it seems pointless to dress things up; the light accents, simply, what is already there. But here, also, the dark side of the city’s history intrudes, as it often does: this is where in 1943, some 2,000 Jews, who had lived in Rome since antiquity, were rounded up and sent to death camps.
Beyond the ruins, on Via del Portico d’Ottavia, the Jewish Ghetto still thrives, with many of the shops buzzing into the evening hours, and nearby is the tiny Piazza Mattei, where four bronze boys play in the Fountain of the Turtles. Stop, at Largo Argentina, where the columns of the Republican Victory Temples, more than 2,000 years old, jut into the night sky (though it is harder then to see the scores of unwanted cats given sanctuary there). It is a good place to end this mini-nocturnal tour of Rome’s history because it was there — not at the Forum — where Julius Caesar was killed, on March 15, 44 B.C, as evening approached (according to some accounts).
History, though, is not the only reason to walk at night. As residents well know, Rome, which evolved not on a triumphal scale, but on a very human one, is simply a lovely place to stroll. Romans are out in numbers to enjoy the summer nights, so visitors can feel assured they are doing generally as the Romans do.
One place to experience this local life is at Piazza del Popolo, once Rome’s northern gate. Every night, but especially on warm weekends, crowds of Italians stroll and shop, with their teenagers working hard to be cool as they wander about the piazza. Our family has gone there often, allowing ourselves to be pulled into the human wave that drifts south on Via del Corso.
The obvious destination from there is Piazza di Spagna, which is full of people day and night. For all the over-the-top adjectives about the piazza and its famous steps — which attracted Goethe, Joyce, Byron, Shelley and Keats, who died there in 1821 at No. 26, now a museum — it is worth noting a contrary view. In December 1872, Henry James arrived on his second visit to Rome and, despite being ill, decided on an evening stroll. He did not care much for Piazza di Spagna.
read more here
Dinner is perfectly safe these days, with street crime low and sewage securely underground. Night now does not really darken Rome so much as illuminate the many parts that matter, a real-life chiaroscuro of the city where Caravaggio lived and painted. With the daytime heat cut in summer, diners at Da Giggetto in the Jewish Ghetto can ponder both their artichokes and the boney, floodlit columns of the Octavian Gate, which stood there a century and a half before Christ was born. Not far away, the Colosseum — where Enlightenment-age tourists wandered at night with notions of Rome maybe even more romantic than ours — rises with singular heft, each stone arch glowing in the night.
Rome at night is, in short, a city lit like a theater, and, especially in the warmer months, should be enjoyed like one. In fact, Georgina Masson, who wrote the 1965 classic “Companion Guide to Rome,” recommended the night as the time Rome should first be seen. The first of her book’s walking tours starts where Rome began, the Capitoline Hill — where Michelangelo designed a piazza, she said, like a “stage set” — overlooking the nubby ruins of the Forum. “Seen by day it requires something of the knowledge of the archaeologist and the imagination of a poet,” she wrote. “But at night ... it is not nearly so difficult to picture the stately ranks of colonnaded temples crowned with the gilded statues and the basilicas rearing their great hulk against the night sky.”
It’s hardly a new thought (it is literally one of the oldest), but in my nearly four years here as the bureau chief of The New York Times, I have found that there is no better place than Capitoline Hill to see, in one dramatic sweep, so much of Rome’s history — especially, as Ms. Masson advises, if one starts at sunset.
A superb walk through time might start on the far side of the hill, on Via dei Fori Imperiali. To the south, the Colosseum glows. Up Via di San Pietro in Carcere is Michelangelo’s Piazza del Campidoglio, with a replica of the equestrian statue of the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius (the original is in the Capitoline Museum) unlit but no less heroic at night, a lone horseman in the center of the city, as has often been noted, at the center of the world. If the Forum is antiquity, the egg-shaped piazza and three palaces are among the finest of Renaissance buildings, stripped of detail at night, revealing more their harmony and, if you are that sort, romance.
A walk down Michelangelo’s steps leads to more of this mix of ages: across the street stands the mini-Colosseum of the Theater of Marcellus, and to the right, the ruins of the Octavian Gate. Here, as elsewhere in Rome, the approach to lighting seems much like Italy’s approach to food: there is so much to work with that it seems pointless to dress things up; the light accents, simply, what is already there. But here, also, the dark side of the city’s history intrudes, as it often does: this is where in 1943, some 2,000 Jews, who had lived in Rome since antiquity, were rounded up and sent to death camps.
Beyond the ruins, on Via del Portico d’Ottavia, the Jewish Ghetto still thrives, with many of the shops buzzing into the evening hours, and nearby is the tiny Piazza Mattei, where four bronze boys play in the Fountain of the Turtles. Stop, at Largo Argentina, where the columns of the Republican Victory Temples, more than 2,000 years old, jut into the night sky (though it is harder then to see the scores of unwanted cats given sanctuary there). It is a good place to end this mini-nocturnal tour of Rome’s history because it was there — not at the Forum — where Julius Caesar was killed, on March 15, 44 B.C, as evening approached (according to some accounts).
History, though, is not the only reason to walk at night. As residents well know, Rome, which evolved not on a triumphal scale, but on a very human one, is simply a lovely place to stroll. Romans are out in numbers to enjoy the summer nights, so visitors can feel assured they are doing generally as the Romans do.
One place to experience this local life is at Piazza del Popolo, once Rome’s northern gate. Every night, but especially on warm weekends, crowds of Italians stroll and shop, with their teenagers working hard to be cool as they wander about the piazza. Our family has gone there often, allowing ourselves to be pulled into the human wave that drifts south on Via del Corso.
The obvious destination from there is Piazza di Spagna, which is full of people day and night. For all the over-the-top adjectives about the piazza and its famous steps — which attracted Goethe, Joyce, Byron, Shelley and Keats, who died there in 1821 at No. 26, now a museum — it is worth noting a contrary view. In December 1872, Henry James arrived on his second visit to Rome and, despite being ill, decided on an evening stroll. He did not care much for Piazza di Spagna.
read more here
8 killed when tourists' bus crashes in Spain
MADRID, Spain - A bus carrying Finnish tourists crashed in southern Spain on Saturday, leaving eight people dead, including a 7-year-old girl, police said.
The bus collided with another vehicle and overturned on the AP-7 coastal highway near the coastal resort town of Benalmadena, a police spokeswoman said.
Another 16 people were injured. All of the bus passengers were Finnish.
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Police arrested the driver of the other vehicle after he failed a blood alcohol test, said the spokeswoman, who declined to give her name in line with police policy.
She said some of the injured were in serious condition in local hospitals.
read more here
The bus collided with another vehicle and overturned on the AP-7 coastal highway near the coastal resort town of Benalmadena, a police spokeswoman said.
Another 16 people were injured. All of the bus passengers were Finnish.
Story continues below ↓
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Police arrested the driver of the other vehicle after he failed a blood alcohol test, said the spokeswoman, who declined to give her name in line with police policy.
She said some of the injured were in serious condition in local hospitals.
read more here
8 killed when tourists' bus crashes in Spain
MADRID, Spain - A bus carrying Finnish tourists crashed in southern Spain on Saturday, leaving eight people dead, including a 7-year-old girl, police said.
The bus collided with another vehicle and overturned on the AP-7 coastal highway near the coastal resort town of Benalmadena, a police spokeswoman said.
Another 16 people were injured. All of the bus passengers were Finnish.
Story continues below ↓
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Police arrested the driver of the other vehicle after he failed a blood alcohol test, said the spokeswoman, who declined to give her name in line with police policy.
She said some of the injured were in serious condition in local hospitals.
read more here
The bus collided with another vehicle and overturned on the AP-7 coastal highway near the coastal resort town of Benalmadena, a police spokeswoman said.
Another 16 people were injured. All of the bus passengers were Finnish.
Story continues below ↓
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Police arrested the driver of the other vehicle after he failed a blood alcohol test, said the spokeswoman, who declined to give her name in line with police policy.
She said some of the injured were in serious condition in local hospitals.
read more here
Ecuador air/hotel, 6 nights, $1,199
The Real Deal: Round-trip airfare, six nights' accommodations, fuel surcharges, transfers, local transportation, and most meals, from $1,199 per person — plus an estimated $126 in taxes.
When: Nov. 24-30, 2008; add $200 for Dec. 22-28. There is a waiting list for a $999 trip Oct. 27-Nov. 2.
Gateways: Miami. Note that Friendly Planet does not offer add-on rates for other gateway cities. Sample Kayak searches yielded round-trip fares of $252 for New York City to Miami (Continental), $415 for Chicago to Miami (United), and $488 for L.A. to Miami (Delta).
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The fine print: Additional taxes and fees are $85 per person; an Ecuador departure tax, to be paid locally prior to departure at the end of the trip, is $41 per person. Comprehensive travel insurance is highly recommended and costs $129 per person. Transfers, ground transportation, fuel surcharges, 18 meals, guided sightseeing tours, and entrance fees are included. Based on double occupancy; single supplement is $225. Read these guidelines before you book any Real Deal.
Book by: April 30, 2008; afterwards, the price increases by $400 per person.
Contact: Friendly Planet, 800/555-5765, friendlyplanet.com.
Why it's a deal: A recent Kayak search for flights from Miami to Quito, Ecuador, produced a $477 round-trip fare (Avianca Airlines). But if you buy the package, you'll be staying in a variety of superior and deluxe hotels with private baths, and 18 meals are included, not to mention English-speaking tour directors and guides, sightseeing tours and entrance fees, and ground transportation, all for $722 more per person. You'll also benefit from one-stop shopping.
Trip details: Over seven days, the Exotic Ecuador package will take you to Quito, Otavalo, Baños, Cotopaxi, and the Amazon rain forest, all by air-conditioned coach, with a mix of guided tours and downtime for exploring on your own.
More from Budget Travel
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After arriving via LAN Ecuador in Quito, a capital city set high among snowcapped peaks and volcanoes, you'll take a tour of the Legislative Palace, the 16th-century Monastery of San Francisco, and the Equatorial Monument. You'll spend the night in the 147-room Grand Mercure Alameda in downtown Quito.
Day two will take you to Otavalo, home to the Otavaleño Indian market, and to surrounding small towns famous for their leatherwork, weavings, and woodwork. Otavalo is known for its traditional music, and you can listen to performers on the streets. Lodging for the night is in Puerto Lago Country Inn on San Pablo Lake.
Days three and four will treat you to the Amazon. You'll travel along the Andes mountain range and then experience the Amazon River and Termas Papallacta Spa. Optional excursions (at no extra cost) include rafting, visiting a wildlife rescue center, and visiting a local Quichua family. Stay in the Casa del Suizo (which you'll get to by boat) on the Napo River.
You'll see the Rio Verde falls (nicknamed the Devil's Cauldron) on your way to Baños, named for the nearby hot springs and famous for melcocha, a taffy. Relax with views of sparkling waterfalls and beautiful landscapes before turning in at the Hacienda Leito Los Llanganates. The next day, spend time in Cotopaxi National Park (home to the highest active volcano in the world) before returning to Quito and catching a flight back to the U.S.
Recent Deals of the Day
Hawaii's Big Island air/hotel, from $894
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Enjoy six nights in Paris, from $899
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Want more time in this fascinating country? Friendly Planet has a late-return fee of $100 per person and will help you book flights within South America (on request).
Ecuador is on the equator, so the climate is humid and tropical. Higher in the mountains, temperatures are cooler and heavy rain is a common happenstance, but your visit will take place during the dry season.
Ecuador is a Spanish-speaking, developing country. It adopted the U.S. dollar in 2000, and both Ecuadoran and U.S. coins are used. Be on the lookout for pickpockets, especially when exploring the chaotic streets of Quito.
For more tips on what to do, visit the website of the country's official tourism site and see the U.S. State Department's travel fact sheet for the country. You can find the latest exchange rate, the weather forecast and the local time at BudgetTravel.com.
read more here
When: Nov. 24-30, 2008; add $200 for Dec. 22-28. There is a waiting list for a $999 trip Oct. 27-Nov. 2.
Gateways: Miami. Note that Friendly Planet does not offer add-on rates for other gateway cities. Sample Kayak searches yielded round-trip fares of $252 for New York City to Miami (Continental), $415 for Chicago to Miami (United), and $488 for L.A. to Miami (Delta).
Story continues below ↓
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The fine print: Additional taxes and fees are $85 per person; an Ecuador departure tax, to be paid locally prior to departure at the end of the trip, is $41 per person. Comprehensive travel insurance is highly recommended and costs $129 per person. Transfers, ground transportation, fuel surcharges, 18 meals, guided sightseeing tours, and entrance fees are included. Based on double occupancy; single supplement is $225. Read these guidelines before you book any Real Deal.
Book by: April 30, 2008; afterwards, the price increases by $400 per person.
Contact: Friendly Planet, 800/555-5765, friendlyplanet.com.
Why it's a deal: A recent Kayak search for flights from Miami to Quito, Ecuador, produced a $477 round-trip fare (Avianca Airlines). But if you buy the package, you'll be staying in a variety of superior and deluxe hotels with private baths, and 18 meals are included, not to mention English-speaking tour directors and guides, sightseeing tours and entrance fees, and ground transportation, all for $722 more per person. You'll also benefit from one-stop shopping.
Trip details: Over seven days, the Exotic Ecuador package will take you to Quito, Otavalo, Baños, Cotopaxi, and the Amazon rain forest, all by air-conditioned coach, with a mix of guided tours and downtime for exploring on your own.
More from Budget Travel
9 hotels you won't believe!
Confessions of an airline executive
Scouting Report: Best places you've never heard of
Nonstop Caribbean: Fly right to the beach
Traveling? 10 ways to cut costs
After arriving via LAN Ecuador in Quito, a capital city set high among snowcapped peaks and volcanoes, you'll take a tour of the Legislative Palace, the 16th-century Monastery of San Francisco, and the Equatorial Monument. You'll spend the night in the 147-room Grand Mercure Alameda in downtown Quito.
Day two will take you to Otavalo, home to the Otavaleño Indian market, and to surrounding small towns famous for their leatherwork, weavings, and woodwork. Otavalo is known for its traditional music, and you can listen to performers on the streets. Lodging for the night is in Puerto Lago Country Inn on San Pablo Lake.
Days three and four will treat you to the Amazon. You'll travel along the Andes mountain range and then experience the Amazon River and Termas Papallacta Spa. Optional excursions (at no extra cost) include rafting, visiting a wildlife rescue center, and visiting a local Quichua family. Stay in the Casa del Suizo (which you'll get to by boat) on the Napo River.
You'll see the Rio Verde falls (nicknamed the Devil's Cauldron) on your way to Baños, named for the nearby hot springs and famous for melcocha, a taffy. Relax with views of sparkling waterfalls and beautiful landscapes before turning in at the Hacienda Leito Los Llanganates. The next day, spend time in Cotopaxi National Park (home to the highest active volcano in the world) before returning to Quito and catching a flight back to the U.S.
Recent Deals of the Day
Hawaii's Big Island air/hotel, from $894
Seven family-friendly U.S. getaways
Enjoy six nights in Paris, from $899
More BudgetTravel deals
Want more time in this fascinating country? Friendly Planet has a late-return fee of $100 per person and will help you book flights within South America (on request).
Ecuador is on the equator, so the climate is humid and tropical. Higher in the mountains, temperatures are cooler and heavy rain is a common happenstance, but your visit will take place during the dry season.
Ecuador is a Spanish-speaking, developing country. It adopted the U.S. dollar in 2000, and both Ecuadoran and U.S. coins are used. Be on the lookout for pickpockets, especially when exploring the chaotic streets of Quito.
For more tips on what to do, visit the website of the country's official tourism site and see the U.S. State Department's travel fact sheet for the country. You can find the latest exchange rate, the weather forecast and the local time at BudgetTravel.com.
read more here
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Your private air travel options are growing
By Blair Watson
updated 2:07 p.m. ET April 16, 2008
With the advent of very light jets (VLJs), people in the United States have more choice in terms of private air travel than ever before.
Travelers can fly to thousands of airports in aircraft that accommodate as few as three passengers (in the case of some VLJs) or as many as 80 passengers (in corporate versions of airliners). Options include air taxi, jet card, and charter services, and fractional, shared and full aircraft ownership.
Hailing an air cab
Air taxi services are relatively new and operate small airplanes such as the Eclipse 500, a 6-seat VLJ or piston aircraft such as the 4-seat Cirrus SR22. Air taxi airplanes fly up to 1,450 miles, usually between smaller airports where there is little or no scheduled airline service.
Story continues below ↓
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According to the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), there are approximately 4,800 airports in the U.S. not served by the airlines, many of which are closer to the locations that travelers need to visit, such as regional offices or client facilities.
People who use air taxi services typically book online, picking their destinations and travel dates and times. The more flexible a traveler is with his or her departure time, the lower the fare because the air taxi company can fly more than one person to the same destination. Prices start at a modest premium to full-fare coach airfare.
Jet cards
Jet-card companies sell blocks of flight time on private, turbine airplanes — in 25-hour increments in most cases — which are “loaded” on a plastic card. As the customer uses the service, time is deducted from the balance. Prices for 25 hours start at approximately $120,000. The aircraft used by jet card companies carry between six and 14 passengers and fly as far as 7,700 miles (New York to Tokyo).
Some operators such as Bombardier Flexjet and Citation Shares have jet-card programs involving airplanes in their fractional ownership fleet, while others like Sentient Jet do not have a fleet and sell hours on their business partners’ aircraft.
A jet card “allows people to buy hours on the airplane without making the capital investment of buying the share of the airplane as our owners do,” said Jean Kelly a senior vice president at CitationShares.
In most cases, fractional owners buy one-sixteenth, one-eighth or one-quarter of an aircraft, depending on the number of flight hours they need annually, starting at 50 hours.
Aircraft charter — plenty of choice
“Nationwide, there are more than 2,500 air charter operators," according to the NBAA Web site. "These charter operators are required to hold an Air Carrier or Commercial Operating Certificate issued by the FAA and Operations Specifications that contain company names, authorizations and limitations. This certificate allows charter operators to conduct on-demand operations under FAR [Federal Aviation Regulation] Part 135 for most business aircraft."
Chartering an airplane or helicopter is a straightforward process done over the telephone or online. A great variety of aircraft can be chartered, from small piston airplanes to large jets that can carry more than 400 passengers or up to 550,000 pounds of cargo.
According to the NBAA, the rule-of-thumb for hiring aircraft on a ‘straight charter’ basis is an annual requirement of 50 flight hours or less. Between 50 and 100 hours, companies often use ‘block chartering’ to take advantage of discount pricing. They pay up front for the hours and the aircraft operator invests the funds.
Part or all of the ‘bird’
In the 100-to-150-hour range, many companies and individuals participate in a fractional aircraft ownership program. Celebrities who own part of an airplane include Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tiger Woods.
According to Dan Hubbard, NBAA Vice President of Communications, companies with personnel who fly between 150 and 250 hours per year may want to consider shared aircraft ownership, which involves one other owner.
When the annual flying requirement reaches 250 hours, full aircraft ownership is often recommended, depending on destinations, financial resources and other factors.
There are consulting firms that analyze clients’ travel requirements to help them determine which type of air transportation is best for them.
The NBAA, which has 8,000 member companies, publishes materials on its Web site to help interested parties educate themselves about private air travel options. As new technologies emerge, the choices will surely increase.
updated 2:07 p.m. ET April 16, 2008
With the advent of very light jets (VLJs), people in the United States have more choice in terms of private air travel than ever before.
Travelers can fly to thousands of airports in aircraft that accommodate as few as three passengers (in the case of some VLJs) or as many as 80 passengers (in corporate versions of airliners). Options include air taxi, jet card, and charter services, and fractional, shared and full aircraft ownership.
Hailing an air cab
Air taxi services are relatively new and operate small airplanes such as the Eclipse 500, a 6-seat VLJ or piston aircraft such as the 4-seat Cirrus SR22. Air taxi airplanes fly up to 1,450 miles, usually between smaller airports where there is little or no scheduled airline service.
Story continues below ↓
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
advertisement
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), there are approximately 4,800 airports in the U.S. not served by the airlines, many of which are closer to the locations that travelers need to visit, such as regional offices or client facilities.
People who use air taxi services typically book online, picking their destinations and travel dates and times. The more flexible a traveler is with his or her departure time, the lower the fare because the air taxi company can fly more than one person to the same destination. Prices start at a modest premium to full-fare coach airfare.
Jet cards
Jet-card companies sell blocks of flight time on private, turbine airplanes — in 25-hour increments in most cases — which are “loaded” on a plastic card. As the customer uses the service, time is deducted from the balance. Prices for 25 hours start at approximately $120,000. The aircraft used by jet card companies carry between six and 14 passengers and fly as far as 7,700 miles (New York to Tokyo).
Some operators such as Bombardier Flexjet and Citation Shares have jet-card programs involving airplanes in their fractional ownership fleet, while others like Sentient Jet do not have a fleet and sell hours on their business partners’ aircraft.
A jet card “allows people to buy hours on the airplane without making the capital investment of buying the share of the airplane as our owners do,” said Jean Kelly a senior vice president at CitationShares.
In most cases, fractional owners buy one-sixteenth, one-eighth or one-quarter of an aircraft, depending on the number of flight hours they need annually, starting at 50 hours.
Aircraft charter — plenty of choice
“Nationwide, there are more than 2,500 air charter operators," according to the NBAA Web site. "These charter operators are required to hold an Air Carrier or Commercial Operating Certificate issued by the FAA and Operations Specifications that contain company names, authorizations and limitations. This certificate allows charter operators to conduct on-demand operations under FAR [Federal Aviation Regulation] Part 135 for most business aircraft."
Chartering an airplane or helicopter is a straightforward process done over the telephone or online. A great variety of aircraft can be chartered, from small piston airplanes to large jets that can carry more than 400 passengers or up to 550,000 pounds of cargo.
According to the NBAA, the rule-of-thumb for hiring aircraft on a ‘straight charter’ basis is an annual requirement of 50 flight hours or less. Between 50 and 100 hours, companies often use ‘block chartering’ to take advantage of discount pricing. They pay up front for the hours and the aircraft operator invests the funds.
Part or all of the ‘bird’
In the 100-to-150-hour range, many companies and individuals participate in a fractional aircraft ownership program. Celebrities who own part of an airplane include Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tiger Woods.
According to Dan Hubbard, NBAA Vice President of Communications, companies with personnel who fly between 150 and 250 hours per year may want to consider shared aircraft ownership, which involves one other owner.
When the annual flying requirement reaches 250 hours, full aircraft ownership is often recommended, depending on destinations, financial resources and other factors.
There are consulting firms that analyze clients’ travel requirements to help them determine which type of air transportation is best for them.
The NBAA, which has 8,000 member companies, publishes materials on its Web site to help interested parties educate themselves about private air travel options. As new technologies emerge, the choices will surely increase.
Man who claims innocence freed after 26 years
Attorneys say their client, now dead, committed murder
updated 9:37 p.m. ET April 18, 2008
CHICAGO - A man who spent 26 years in prison was freed on bond Friday while he awaits a new trial for a murder another inmate confessed to his lawyers.
Alton Logan’s family said they took up a collection in the lobby of the Cook County Criminal Courthouse and quickly came up with the $1,000 needed for his release.
A tearful Logan said he felt great leaving the courthouse surrounded by friends and family.
Story continues below ↓
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Two attorneys recently revealed that their former client, Andrew Wilson, admitted to committing the crime that Logan was convicted of but that attorney-client privilege kept them from coming forward.
Logan did not kill a security guard in a McDonald's restaurant in January 1982, the two lawyers said.
Click for related content
A killer's 26-year-old secret
For nearly 26 years, they said, they kept a sealed affidavit of their client's confession to the crime in a locked box.
The attorneys came forward in January after Wilson died. More from msnbc.com
World Blog: Mood turns ugly in Beijing over Tibet
Are you smart? Take our weekly quiz
World Blog: Darfur refugees make music for Passover
Living in a multiracial family? Share your story
updated 9:37 p.m. ET April 18, 2008
CHICAGO - A man who spent 26 years in prison was freed on bond Friday while he awaits a new trial for a murder another inmate confessed to his lawyers.
Alton Logan’s family said they took up a collection in the lobby of the Cook County Criminal Courthouse and quickly came up with the $1,000 needed for his release.
A tearful Logan said he felt great leaving the courthouse surrounded by friends and family.
Story continues below ↓
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
advertisement
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two attorneys recently revealed that their former client, Andrew Wilson, admitted to committing the crime that Logan was convicted of but that attorney-client privilege kept them from coming forward.
Logan did not kill a security guard in a McDonald's restaurant in January 1982, the two lawyers said.
Click for related content
A killer's 26-year-old secret
For nearly 26 years, they said, they kept a sealed affidavit of their client's confession to the crime in a locked box.
The attorneys came forward in January after Wilson died. More from msnbc.com
World Blog: Mood turns ugly in Beijing over Tibet
Are you smart? Take our weekly quiz
World Blog: Darfur refugees make music for Passover
Living in a multiracial family? Share your story
Afghan commandos emerge
U.S.-trained force plays growing role in fighting insurgents
By Ann Scott Tyson
updated 1:06 a.m. ET April 19, 2008
KHOST PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Night after night, commandos in U.S. Chinook helicopters descend into remote Afghan villages, wielding M-4 rifles as they swarm Taliban compounds. Such raids began in December in the Sabari District here, long considered too dangerous for U.S. patrols, and have already resulted in the death or capture of 30 insurgent leaders in eastern Afghanistan, according to U.S. commanders.
"The Americans are doing this," the Taliban fighters concluded, according to U.S. intelligence.
But though the commandos carry the best U.S. rifles, wear night-vision goggles and ride in armored Humvees, they are not Americans but Afghans -- trained and advised by U.S. Special Forces teams that are seeking to create a sustainable combat force that will ultimately replace them in Afghanistan.
Story continues below ↓
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"This is our ticket out of here," a Special Forces company commander said last month at a U.S. base in Khost, where his teams eat, sleep, train and fight alongside the commandos.
The creation of a 4,000-strong Afghan commando force marks a major evolution for U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan. After small teams of Green Berets spearheaded the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001, they took the lead in combat, with the disparate Afghan militia forces they trained and paid playing a supporting role. Today, by contrast, the Special Forces advisers are putting the Afghan commandos in the lead -- coaching a self-reliant force that U.S. commanders say has emerged as a key tool against insurgents.
Three of six planned Afghan army commando battalions -- with 640 commandos each -- have begun operations over the past five months. U.S. commanders say hurdles remain, from basic logistical issues such as teaching the commandos to conserve water to the larger challenge of ensuring that they are well integrated into the regular Afghan army. Still, the program is a bright spot in the broader effort to train Afghan security forces, a crucial aspect of the NATO and U.S.-led strategy to stabilize Afghanistan -- one that is slowed by a shortage of thousands of trainers and recruits as well as equipment problems.
The new approach also offers the prospect of relief for the Special Forces, strained by years of deployments in Afghanistan, commanders say. At any one time, more than 2,000 Special Forces soldiers and support personnel are on the ground, many operating in 12-man teams partnered with Afghan forces in the country's most troubled districts.
In violent parts of Khost and elsewhere, the commandos play a narrow but critical role: They capture or kill insurgent leaders, financiers and bombmakers as the first phase of the strategy to clear areas of enemy cells, hold the territory and build security and governance. The need for an Afghan force skilled in attacking insurgent networks is particularly pressing, as roadside bombs and suicide attacks have increased since 2006.
In a training camp surrounded by mountains in Khost, Lt. Mohamed Reza, 29, of the 203rd commando battalion counts down for a mock helicopter landing. "One minute . . . 30 seconds . . . touchdown!" His platoon rushes forward, one soldier kicking open the door of a compound before the rest run inside, pivoting into each room. A commando grabs a U.S. trainer impersonating an insurgent, puts him in a painful finger lock and forces him out the door.
"Alaklat!" they yell. All clear!
Looking on, a Special Forces adviser makes sure that the commandos do not miss any rooms and that they deal readily with whatever challenges he throws in their path, such as stray goats or disguised fighters. These rehearsals -- starting with simple drills tracing tape on the ground and rising in complexity to assaults on multistory buildings -- exemplify the exhaustive training they receive.
By Ann Scott Tyson
updated 1:06 a.m. ET April 19, 2008
KHOST PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Night after night, commandos in U.S. Chinook helicopters descend into remote Afghan villages, wielding M-4 rifles as they swarm Taliban compounds. Such raids began in December in the Sabari District here, long considered too dangerous for U.S. patrols, and have already resulted in the death or capture of 30 insurgent leaders in eastern Afghanistan, according to U.S. commanders.
"The Americans are doing this," the Taliban fighters concluded, according to U.S. intelligence.
But though the commandos carry the best U.S. rifles, wear night-vision goggles and ride in armored Humvees, they are not Americans but Afghans -- trained and advised by U.S. Special Forces teams that are seeking to create a sustainable combat force that will ultimately replace them in Afghanistan.
Story continues below ↓
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
advertisement
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"This is our ticket out of here," a Special Forces company commander said last month at a U.S. base in Khost, where his teams eat, sleep, train and fight alongside the commandos.
The creation of a 4,000-strong Afghan commando force marks a major evolution for U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan. After small teams of Green Berets spearheaded the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001, they took the lead in combat, with the disparate Afghan militia forces they trained and paid playing a supporting role. Today, by contrast, the Special Forces advisers are putting the Afghan commandos in the lead -- coaching a self-reliant force that U.S. commanders say has emerged as a key tool against insurgents.
Three of six planned Afghan army commando battalions -- with 640 commandos each -- have begun operations over the past five months. U.S. commanders say hurdles remain, from basic logistical issues such as teaching the commandos to conserve water to the larger challenge of ensuring that they are well integrated into the regular Afghan army. Still, the program is a bright spot in the broader effort to train Afghan security forces, a crucial aspect of the NATO and U.S.-led strategy to stabilize Afghanistan -- one that is slowed by a shortage of thousands of trainers and recruits as well as equipment problems.
The new approach also offers the prospect of relief for the Special Forces, strained by years of deployments in Afghanistan, commanders say. At any one time, more than 2,000 Special Forces soldiers and support personnel are on the ground, many operating in 12-man teams partnered with Afghan forces in the country's most troubled districts.
In violent parts of Khost and elsewhere, the commandos play a narrow but critical role: They capture or kill insurgent leaders, financiers and bombmakers as the first phase of the strategy to clear areas of enemy cells, hold the territory and build security and governance. The need for an Afghan force skilled in attacking insurgent networks is particularly pressing, as roadside bombs and suicide attacks have increased since 2006.
In a training camp surrounded by mountains in Khost, Lt. Mohamed Reza, 29, of the 203rd commando battalion counts down for a mock helicopter landing. "One minute . . . 30 seconds . . . touchdown!" His platoon rushes forward, one soldier kicking open the door of a compound before the rest run inside, pivoting into each room. A commando grabs a U.S. trainer impersonating an insurgent, puts him in a painful finger lock and forces him out the door.
"Alaklat!" they yell. All clear!
Looking on, a Special Forces adviser makes sure that the commandos do not miss any rooms and that they deal readily with whatever challenges he throws in their path, such as stray goats or disguised fighters. These rehearsals -- starting with simple drills tracing tape on the ground and rising in complexity to assaults on multistory buildings -- exemplify the exhaustive training they receive.
Disconnect on an ultimate unplugged vacation
By Rebecca Ruiz and Vidya Ram
updated 3:52 p.m. ET April 18, 2008
It's getting harder to escape the blinking light of one's BlackBerry while on vacation. The handheld device is now supported in 135 countries and available from over 350 carriers and channels.
Travelers might also be surprised to hear cell phones ring in the Yosemite Valley, Galapagos Islands and even on Mount Everest. Not only are these remote destinations now rigged for basic cell phone service, wireless Internet is available at local hotels and resorts.
That's not so good for those seeking a reprieve from the daily grind.
Story continues below ↓
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Just 10 years ago, finding an area untouched by widespread digital technology was easy. But growing demand for cell phone coverage and wireless Internet access in even the most far-flung locales has changed that. Now those seeking a vacation from work and technology are left with two choices: travel far out of range or practice self-restraint.
Leaving the wired world
Dropping out of the world's many cell phone networks requires finding a very remote vacation spot. Eighty percent of the world's population currently has cellular coverage of some type. By 2010, that number will jump to 90 percent, according to Wireless Intelligence, a data research service provided by the GSM Association, a trade organization of mobile operators.
As Internet, cellular and data coverage has expanded, the expectations of business executives to stay connected while on vacation have kept apace.
Also on this story
Slide show: World’s ultimate unplugged vacations
"If you take on a CEO job," says Adam Weissenberg, Deloitte's vice chairman and U.S. tourism, hospitality and leisure leader, "there's an expectation that you'll be available."
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Click below for more slide shows
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Best second home spots in the U.S.
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Deloitte's research has shown that demand for amenities like wireless Internet, particularly among business travelers, has prompted some previously unwired hotels and resorts to install it for a competitive advantage.
A Deloitte survey of 2,000 business travelers conducted last year also showed that one-third of respondents checked and replied to work e-mails and voice mails while on vacation.
Lisa Lindblad, who runs Manhattan-based Lisa Lindblad Travel Design, says that she never fields requests for so-called unplugged vacations. Instead, her clients want guaranteed access to the outside world.
How to unplug
Those that don't should head to the Gobi Desert and Alaskan wilderness, two destinations where coverage is still minimal. While cell phone companies service parts of Mongolia, the country is mostly without a signal, including at the Three Camel Lodge in the Gurvansaikhan National Park. The lodge serves as a base camp from which to explore the foothills of the Gobi-Altai Mountains and nearby sand dunes. Guests, who are also without wireless Internet, stay in traditional, furnished felt tents used by nomadic herders.
The Ultima Thule Lodge is located in the Alaskan Wrangell Mountains, which is also out of cell phone range. Guests, who stay in rustic cabins, spend their time discovering glaciers, admiring the Northern Lights and viewing the wilderness by small plane. Travelers can also try Morocco where guests of the spa hotel Ksar Massa relax uninterrupted by technology on an isolated beach in the Souss-Massa national park.
Courtesy of Ultima Thule Lodge
The Ultima Thule Lodge is located in the Alaskan Wrangell Mountains, which is out of cell phone range. Guests spend their time discovering glaciers, admiring the northern lights and viewing the wilderness by small plane. At the end of the day, visitors retire to rustic cabins and can relax in the wood-fired sauna.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At the Smith Fork Ranch on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, guests have wireless Internet, but no cell phone service. Andy Adams, the ranch's general manager, says that executives are often so distracted by fishing, hiking and enjoying three-hour dinners, that there's "no time for them to sit there and start typing e-mails."
Visitors may attend to small details, like asking the staff to fax an important paper, but most, says Adams, try to avoid spending their week-long vacation—which can cost up to $21,000 when renting a riverside cabin—on work.
Destinations like these, which offer either Internet or cell phone service, can actually aid executives in setting boundaries on vacation while remaining reachable. But they are increasingly harder to find, particularly as demand for cell phone and Internet service grows in places like China, India and Africa. Even once-isolated areas like Antarctica and the Australian outback now have cell phone or high-speed data service.
Weissenberg says the key to unplugging is moderation and delegation. He recommends leaving a list of 10 people who can handle different tasks, hiring a savvy assistant who knows what merits interrupting your vacation and setting a limit on the number of times you check e-mail each day.
"If you let technology run your vacation," he says, "you can easily run into that trap of being online the whole time."
Don't miss these Travel stories from msnbc.com
World’s ultimate unplugged vacations
FAA sets up alerts for missed inspections
Cool hotels that take no prisoners — anymore
Airport screeners to get more security training
FirstPerson: Send us your best spring photos
visit the site for more infrormation
updated 3:52 p.m. ET April 18, 2008
It's getting harder to escape the blinking light of one's BlackBerry while on vacation. The handheld device is now supported in 135 countries and available from over 350 carriers and channels.
Travelers might also be surprised to hear cell phones ring in the Yosemite Valley, Galapagos Islands and even on Mount Everest. Not only are these remote destinations now rigged for basic cell phone service, wireless Internet is available at local hotels and resorts.
That's not so good for those seeking a reprieve from the daily grind.
Story continues below ↓
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Just 10 years ago, finding an area untouched by widespread digital technology was easy. But growing demand for cell phone coverage and wireless Internet access in even the most far-flung locales has changed that. Now those seeking a vacation from work and technology are left with two choices: travel far out of range or practice self-restraint.
Leaving the wired world
Dropping out of the world's many cell phone networks requires finding a very remote vacation spot. Eighty percent of the world's population currently has cellular coverage of some type. By 2010, that number will jump to 90 percent, according to Wireless Intelligence, a data research service provided by the GSM Association, a trade organization of mobile operators.
As Internet, cellular and data coverage has expanded, the expectations of business executives to stay connected while on vacation have kept apace.
Also on this story
Slide show: World’s ultimate unplugged vacations
"If you take on a CEO job," says Adam Weissenberg, Deloitte's vice chairman and U.S. tourism, hospitality and leisure leader, "there's an expectation that you'll be available."
More from Forbes.com
Click below for more slide shows
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Deloitte's research has shown that demand for amenities like wireless Internet, particularly among business travelers, has prompted some previously unwired hotels and resorts to install it for a competitive advantage.
A Deloitte survey of 2,000 business travelers conducted last year also showed that one-third of respondents checked and replied to work e-mails and voice mails while on vacation.
Lisa Lindblad, who runs Manhattan-based Lisa Lindblad Travel Design, says that she never fields requests for so-called unplugged vacations. Instead, her clients want guaranteed access to the outside world.
How to unplug
Those that don't should head to the Gobi Desert and Alaskan wilderness, two destinations where coverage is still minimal. While cell phone companies service parts of Mongolia, the country is mostly without a signal, including at the Three Camel Lodge in the Gurvansaikhan National Park. The lodge serves as a base camp from which to explore the foothills of the Gobi-Altai Mountains and nearby sand dunes. Guests, who are also without wireless Internet, stay in traditional, furnished felt tents used by nomadic herders.
The Ultima Thule Lodge is located in the Alaskan Wrangell Mountains, which is also out of cell phone range. Guests, who stay in rustic cabins, spend their time discovering glaciers, admiring the Northern Lights and viewing the wilderness by small plane. Travelers can also try Morocco where guests of the spa hotel Ksar Massa relax uninterrupted by technology on an isolated beach in the Souss-Massa national park.
Courtesy of Ultima Thule Lodge
The Ultima Thule Lodge is located in the Alaskan Wrangell Mountains, which is out of cell phone range. Guests spend their time discovering glaciers, admiring the northern lights and viewing the wilderness by small plane. At the end of the day, visitors retire to rustic cabins and can relax in the wood-fired sauna.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At the Smith Fork Ranch on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, guests have wireless Internet, but no cell phone service. Andy Adams, the ranch's general manager, says that executives are often so distracted by fishing, hiking and enjoying three-hour dinners, that there's "no time for them to sit there and start typing e-mails."
Visitors may attend to small details, like asking the staff to fax an important paper, but most, says Adams, try to avoid spending their week-long vacation—which can cost up to $21,000 when renting a riverside cabin—on work.
Destinations like these, which offer either Internet or cell phone service, can actually aid executives in setting boundaries on vacation while remaining reachable. But they are increasingly harder to find, particularly as demand for cell phone and Internet service grows in places like China, India and Africa. Even once-isolated areas like Antarctica and the Australian outback now have cell phone or high-speed data service.
Weissenberg says the key to unplugging is moderation and delegation. He recommends leaving a list of 10 people who can handle different tasks, hiring a savvy assistant who knows what merits interrupting your vacation and setting a limit on the number of times you check e-mail each day.
"If you let technology run your vacation," he says, "you can easily run into that trap of being online the whole time."
Don't miss these Travel stories from msnbc.com
World’s ultimate unplugged vacations
FAA sets up alerts for missed inspections
Cool hotels that take no prisoners — anymore
Airport screeners to get more security training
FirstPerson: Send us your best spring photos
visit the site for more infrormation
Bachelor's Degree Online Program
This online bachelor's degrees program allows professionals and working adults like you to get bachelor's degree based on experience or by taking the online equivalency test. You can receive accredited online college degrees without attending classes or taking admissions anywhere.
Students seeking admission in our bachelor's degree program are required to have at least 4 years of work or
life experience relevant to their desired major or the
minimum passing score of our online equivalency test.
If you want to get your online university degree on the basis of prior life experience, the eligibility requirements for a Bachelor’s degree may be satisfied in any of the following ways :
• Prior job experience in any field
• Previous educational achievements
• Employer-sponsored training and attendance of workshops
• Participation in organizations, both professional and
non-professional
• Personal goals, lifestyle, hobbies, and travel
• Participation in volunteer activities and community service
• Independent reading, viewing, listening, or writing
If you have the required work or life experience, click below to apply for a degree in your desired major and get it in just 7 days!
apply and see more information
Students seeking admission in our bachelor's degree program are required to have at least 4 years of work or
life experience relevant to their desired major or the
minimum passing score of our online equivalency test.
If you want to get your online university degree on the basis of prior life experience, the eligibility requirements for a Bachelor’s degree may be satisfied in any of the following ways :
• Prior job experience in any field
• Previous educational achievements
• Employer-sponsored training and attendance of workshops
• Participation in organizations, both professional and
non-professional
• Personal goals, lifestyle, hobbies, and travel
• Participation in volunteer activities and community service
• Independent reading, viewing, listening, or writing
If you have the required work or life experience, click below to apply for a degree in your desired major and get it in just 7 days!
apply and see more information
University of Business and International Studies Geneva
International Business Management
International Relations
Media and Communication
UBIS online
The UBIS Online educational center is designed to provide students, working adults, and career-oriented individuals interested in professional development a virtual worldwide academic community for learning, training, and skills development. By delivering coursework directly to your computer, your learning becomes flexible and fits with your personal time and location constraints. Our purpose is to provide you with a solid educational background with the flexibility of distance learning combined with the rigor of a traditional education. UBIS Online's vision is to create a virtual academic community in which students and faculty from around the world can learn with and from each other, make international contacts and friendships, and gain an education that will give them a step ahead in this rapid globalizing world.
American Academic Partnership Program
The University of Business and International Studies Geneva (UBIS) is pleased to announce its new American Academic Partnership Program (AAPP). The AAPP is a global collaborative established through an articulation agreement between UBIS and Potomac College, a regionally accredited* post secondary institution located in Washington, DC. It facilitates the transfer of UBIS credits to Potomac College so that our students can combine courses from both institutions and graduate with a degree from the United States and Europe. The Program is designed to provide a unique opportunity for UBIS students to pursue their educational goals while gaining international exposure and marketability.
Graduate Programs
MBA - Master of Business Administration
MAS - Master of Advanced Studies in Media and Communication
Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) designed for senior managers with extensive work experience. Held on Saturdays to accommodate working adults.
The UBIS Philosophy
Innovation and personal attention.
Flexible teaching with personalized coaching and small classes.
Internships and a work-study program where students can earn credits while working.
Undergraduate Programs
In accordance with both US and European requirements
BBA - Bachelor of Business Administration
BA - Bachelor of Arts in International Relations
BA - Bachelor of Arts in Media and Communication
APAS Adult Program of Accelerated Studies
Associate Degrees (two year program)
Why a Bachelor Program at UBIS
Thanks to our unique blend of commitment, flexibility, size, and high faculty/student ratio, we are providing our students with a great deal of personal attention.
more information and apply enter here
International Relations
Media and Communication
UBIS online
The UBIS Online educational center is designed to provide students, working adults, and career-oriented individuals interested in professional development a virtual worldwide academic community for learning, training, and skills development. By delivering coursework directly to your computer, your learning becomes flexible and fits with your personal time and location constraints. Our purpose is to provide you with a solid educational background with the flexibility of distance learning combined with the rigor of a traditional education. UBIS Online's vision is to create a virtual academic community in which students and faculty from around the world can learn with and from each other, make international contacts and friendships, and gain an education that will give them a step ahead in this rapid globalizing world.
American Academic Partnership Program
The University of Business and International Studies Geneva (UBIS) is pleased to announce its new American Academic Partnership Program (AAPP). The AAPP is a global collaborative established through an articulation agreement between UBIS and Potomac College, a regionally accredited* post secondary institution located in Washington, DC. It facilitates the transfer of UBIS credits to Potomac College so that our students can combine courses from both institutions and graduate with a degree from the United States and Europe. The Program is designed to provide a unique opportunity for UBIS students to pursue their educational goals while gaining international exposure and marketability.
Graduate Programs
MBA - Master of Business Administration
MAS - Master of Advanced Studies in Media and Communication
Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) designed for senior managers with extensive work experience. Held on Saturdays to accommodate working adults.
The UBIS Philosophy
Innovation and personal attention.
Flexible teaching with personalized coaching and small classes.
Internships and a work-study program where students can earn credits while working.
Undergraduate Programs
In accordance with both US and European requirements
BBA - Bachelor of Business Administration
BA - Bachelor of Arts in International Relations
BA - Bachelor of Arts in Media and Communication
APAS Adult Program of Accelerated Studies
Associate Degrees (two year program)
Why a Bachelor Program at UBIS
Thanks to our unique blend of commitment, flexibility, size, and high faculty/student ratio, we are providing our students with a great deal of personal attention.
more information and apply enter here
NORTHCENTRAL UNIVERSITY
NCU is an accredited online university providing graduate and undergraduate degree programs in business and technology management, education, and psychology.
We create a unique 100% online academic program just for you. Pursue your professional interests, receive personalized guidance from Faculty Mentors, and schedule learning at your own pace. Many online schools mandate weekly attendance, campus residency, and rigid, inflexible program requirements and term schedules. Not NCU! Balance your education with career demands and needs for personal and family time.
Seeking to advance professionally, achieve your dreams and balance personal life with education and career? Northcentral University is the school for you.
We look forward to helping you succeed in achieving your educational goals. We will see you in person in Prescott Valley, Arizona when you graduate.
visit the site
We create a unique 100% online academic program just for you. Pursue your professional interests, receive personalized guidance from Faculty Mentors, and schedule learning at your own pace. Many online schools mandate weekly attendance, campus residency, and rigid, inflexible program requirements and term schedules. Not NCU! Balance your education with career demands and needs for personal and family time.
Seeking to advance professionally, achieve your dreams and balance personal life with education and career? Northcentral University is the school for you.
We look forward to helping you succeed in achieving your educational goals. We will see you in person in Prescott Valley, Arizona when you graduate.
visit the site
Online Courses
Diplomas and Certificates Online
Get your diploma or certificate online and get a possibility for professional growth.
Online Tests
Pass your test or exam online. TOEFL, IQ, GRE, GMAT, LSAT, SAT and vocabulary tests.
University of Phoenix
University of Phoenix is one of the first and the best in online education. It offers a big variety of degree and non-degree programs online.
Do you want to improve your professional skills and knowledge? You can take and complete the course you need online. Courses in arts and humanities, business studies, criminal justice, computers and programming are offered by colleges and universities online.
Arts and Humanities Online Courses
Business Online Courses
Computers, Internet, Programming
Criminal Justice, Law, Paralegal
Design Online Courses
Education Online Courses
Health Care, Medicine and Psychology
Journalism and Communications
Languages Online
Law Online Courses
Music Online Courses
Photography Online Courses
Theology and Bible Online Courses
Traffic Driving Online Courses
to see the site
Get your diploma or certificate online and get a possibility for professional growth.
Online Tests
Pass your test or exam online. TOEFL, IQ, GRE, GMAT, LSAT, SAT and vocabulary tests.
University of Phoenix
University of Phoenix is one of the first and the best in online education. It offers a big variety of degree and non-degree programs online.
Do you want to improve your professional skills and knowledge? You can take and complete the course you need online. Courses in arts and humanities, business studies, criminal justice, computers and programming are offered by colleges and universities online.
Arts and Humanities Online Courses
Business Online Courses
Computers, Internet, Programming
Criminal Justice, Law, Paralegal
Design Online Courses
Education Online Courses
Health Care, Medicine and Psychology
Journalism and Communications
Languages Online
Law Online Courses
Music Online Courses
Photography Online Courses
Theology and Bible Online Courses
Traffic Driving Online Courses
to see the site
Vassar College
About Vassar College
Quick Vassar Facts: Founded in 1861, Vassar College is a highly selective, residential, coeducational liberal arts college. Consistently ranked among the top liberal arts colleges in the country, Vassar is renowned for pioneering achievements in education, for its long history of curricular innovation, and for the beauty of its campus. See more in the Virtual Campus Tour!
Location In the scenic Hudson Valley, 75 miles north of New York City, in Poughkeepsie (area population about 100,000). Vassar is in a residential area three miles from the city center.
Students 2,400 students; approximately 60% come from public high schools, 40% from private schools (both independent and religious). In recent freshman classes, students of color have comprised up to 21-26% of matriculants. International students from over 45 countries comprise 8% of the student body (for more information specific to international students, see the International FAQ).
Faculty More than 260 faculty members, virtually all holding the doctorate or its equivalent. All classes are taught by faculty members. The student-faculty ratio is 9:1, average class size, 17. More than 70% of the faculty live on campus or nearby; one or two faculty families live in each residence hall as House Fellows.
Curriculum Students may concentrate in a single discipline, an interdepartmental or multidisciplinary program, or they may design an independent major. There is no "core curriculum." Students must demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language, successfully complete at least one quantitative course, and, in the first year, successfully complete a writing-intensive course (chosen from about 20 options).
Campus 1,000 picturesque acres ranging from the manicured lawns and formal gardens of the main campus to the meadows and woodlands of the Vassar Farm. Over 100 academic and residential buildings ranging in style from collegiate gothic to modernist, including two National Historic Landmarks. Most recent addition: the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film, with state-of-the-art screening rooms, studios, and productions facilities, and Kenyon Hall, with a dedicated dance theater.
Campus Life 98% of students live on campus (housing is guaranteed). Over 100 student-run organizations and clubs, including WVKR-FM radio; debate; a volunteer network; dance, theater, and comedy troupes; classical, jazz, gospel, a cappella, and rock groups; nearly a dozen student publications; and a broad spectrum of ethnic, religious, and political groups. About 1,650 campus-wide events annually, including guest lecturers, visiting artists, performers, workshops, athletic events, and concerts.
Athletics 23 varsity teams (N.C.A.A. Division III), club sports, and intramural leagues. Extensively expanded athletic facilities, including new wood-floor gymnasium, elevated running track, 5,000-square-foot fitness facility.
Libraries (main, art, music, and special collections): over a million print volumes; nearly 3,000 serial titles; 715,000 pieces of microform; multiple electronic resources and databases.
Computing and Information Services Fully wired and wireless (including every residence hall room) and connected via Ethernet to the Internet and the Web. Computer clusters in every residence hall as well as in the library, academic buildings, the College Center, and the Computer Center.
Study Away Programs Students (usually juniors) may apply for a year or a semester away either in the U.S. or abroad. Vassar sponsors programs in China, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Morocco and Spain; students may also join preapproved programs offered by other colleges. Students may also apply for approved programs at various U.S. institutions, including the historically Black colleges and members of the Twelve College Exchange.
Field Work, Internships, and Research About 500 students each year do field work for academic credit in organizations and agencies in the local community or in New York City. Over 300 students each year work one-on-one with faculty as paid research assistants or academic interns in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.
After Vassar 75-80% of Vassar graduates plan to pursue advanced study within 5 years of graduation. Graduates are accepted regularly at top-ranking schools of law, medicine, business, and education. Vassar is a leader in producing Ph.D. candidates. The Office of Career Development provides counseling and connections with hundreds of top employers nationwide.
Admission Highly selective. The primary criterion is academic ability as demonstrated by superior performance in high school; about 90% of matriculated students ranked in the top 20% of their high school classes. Standardized test results are also considered. The SAT mid-50% range for the most recent first year class was 2020-2210. Personal strengths, motivations, and potential -- as evidenced in essays, recommendations, and out-of-class involvements -- are also weighed.
Financial Aid Vassar adheres to a need-blind admission policy. Financial aid is awarded to about 55% of Vassar students, exclusively on the basis of need, as determined by Vassar’s own preliminary aid application, the PROFILE form of the College Scholarship Service, and the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (F.A.F.S.A.). The college aims to meet the full need of all domestic matriculants, although its ability to do so depends on the number and needs of students admitted.
Costs 2006/2007 Tuition $35,520, Room and Board $8,130, Fees $510, Total $44,160.
Departments Anthropology; Art; Biology; Chemistry; Chinese and Japanese; Classics; Computer Science; Drama and Film; Dance; Earth Science and Geography; Economics; Education; English; French; German Studies; Hispanic Studies; History; Italian; Mathematics; Music; Philosophy; Physical Education; Physics and Astronomy; Political Science; Psychology; Religion; Russian Studies; Sociology.
Interdepartmental Programs Biochemistry; Earth Science and Society; Geography-Anthropology; Medieval and Renaissance Studies; Neuroscience and Behavior; Victorian Studies
Multidisciplinary Programs Africana Studies; American Culture; Asian Studies; Cognitive Science; Environmental Studies; The Independent Program; International Studies; Jewish Studies; Latin American Studies; Media Studies; Science, Technology and Society; Urban Studies; Women’s Studies
Other Self-Instructional Language Program; College Courses; Interdepartmental Courses
The Office of Pre-Professional Advising provides extensive information and support for students applying to professional schools in law, medicine, and business.
The Office of Career Development extensive career counseling, information and placement services, including career-mentoring network of 8,000 alumnae/i.
enter the site : http://www.vassar.edu
Quick Vassar Facts: Founded in 1861, Vassar College is a highly selective, residential, coeducational liberal arts college. Consistently ranked among the top liberal arts colleges in the country, Vassar is renowned for pioneering achievements in education, for its long history of curricular innovation, and for the beauty of its campus. See more in the Virtual Campus Tour!
Location In the scenic Hudson Valley, 75 miles north of New York City, in Poughkeepsie (area population about 100,000). Vassar is in a residential area three miles from the city center.
Students 2,400 students; approximately 60% come from public high schools, 40% from private schools (both independent and religious). In recent freshman classes, students of color have comprised up to 21-26% of matriculants. International students from over 45 countries comprise 8% of the student body (for more information specific to international students, see the International FAQ).
Faculty More than 260 faculty members, virtually all holding the doctorate or its equivalent. All classes are taught by faculty members. The student-faculty ratio is 9:1, average class size, 17. More than 70% of the faculty live on campus or nearby; one or two faculty families live in each residence hall as House Fellows.
Curriculum Students may concentrate in a single discipline, an interdepartmental or multidisciplinary program, or they may design an independent major. There is no "core curriculum." Students must demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language, successfully complete at least one quantitative course, and, in the first year, successfully complete a writing-intensive course (chosen from about 20 options).
Campus 1,000 picturesque acres ranging from the manicured lawns and formal gardens of the main campus to the meadows and woodlands of the Vassar Farm. Over 100 academic and residential buildings ranging in style from collegiate gothic to modernist, including two National Historic Landmarks. Most recent addition: the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film, with state-of-the-art screening rooms, studios, and productions facilities, and Kenyon Hall, with a dedicated dance theater.
Campus Life 98% of students live on campus (housing is guaranteed). Over 100 student-run organizations and clubs, including WVKR-FM radio; debate; a volunteer network; dance, theater, and comedy troupes; classical, jazz, gospel, a cappella, and rock groups; nearly a dozen student publications; and a broad spectrum of ethnic, religious, and political groups. About 1,650 campus-wide events annually, including guest lecturers, visiting artists, performers, workshops, athletic events, and concerts.
Athletics 23 varsity teams (N.C.A.A. Division III), club sports, and intramural leagues. Extensively expanded athletic facilities, including new wood-floor gymnasium, elevated running track, 5,000-square-foot fitness facility.
Libraries (main, art, music, and special collections): over a million print volumes; nearly 3,000 serial titles; 715,000 pieces of microform; multiple electronic resources and databases.
Computing and Information Services Fully wired and wireless (including every residence hall room) and connected via Ethernet to the Internet and the Web. Computer clusters in every residence hall as well as in the library, academic buildings, the College Center, and the Computer Center.
Study Away Programs Students (usually juniors) may apply for a year or a semester away either in the U.S. or abroad. Vassar sponsors programs in China, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Morocco and Spain; students may also join preapproved programs offered by other colleges. Students may also apply for approved programs at various U.S. institutions, including the historically Black colleges and members of the Twelve College Exchange.
Field Work, Internships, and Research About 500 students each year do field work for academic credit in organizations and agencies in the local community or in New York City. Over 300 students each year work one-on-one with faculty as paid research assistants or academic interns in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.
After Vassar 75-80% of Vassar graduates plan to pursue advanced study within 5 years of graduation. Graduates are accepted regularly at top-ranking schools of law, medicine, business, and education. Vassar is a leader in producing Ph.D. candidates. The Office of Career Development provides counseling and connections with hundreds of top employers nationwide.
Admission Highly selective. The primary criterion is academic ability as demonstrated by superior performance in high school; about 90% of matriculated students ranked in the top 20% of their high school classes. Standardized test results are also considered. The SAT mid-50% range for the most recent first year class was 2020-2210. Personal strengths, motivations, and potential -- as evidenced in essays, recommendations, and out-of-class involvements -- are also weighed.
Financial Aid Vassar adheres to a need-blind admission policy. Financial aid is awarded to about 55% of Vassar students, exclusively on the basis of need, as determined by Vassar’s own preliminary aid application, the PROFILE form of the College Scholarship Service, and the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (F.A.F.S.A.). The college aims to meet the full need of all domestic matriculants, although its ability to do so depends on the number and needs of students admitted.
Costs 2006/2007 Tuition $35,520, Room and Board $8,130, Fees $510, Total $44,160.
Departments Anthropology; Art; Biology; Chemistry; Chinese and Japanese; Classics; Computer Science; Drama and Film; Dance; Earth Science and Geography; Economics; Education; English; French; German Studies; Hispanic Studies; History; Italian; Mathematics; Music; Philosophy; Physical Education; Physics and Astronomy; Political Science; Psychology; Religion; Russian Studies; Sociology.
Interdepartmental Programs Biochemistry; Earth Science and Society; Geography-Anthropology; Medieval and Renaissance Studies; Neuroscience and Behavior; Victorian Studies
Multidisciplinary Programs Africana Studies; American Culture; Asian Studies; Cognitive Science; Environmental Studies; The Independent Program; International Studies; Jewish Studies; Latin American Studies; Media Studies; Science, Technology and Society; Urban Studies; Women’s Studies
Other Self-Instructional Language Program; College Courses; Interdepartmental Courses
The Office of Pre-Professional Advising provides extensive information and support for students applying to professional schools in law, medicine, and business.
The Office of Career Development extensive career counseling, information and placement services, including career-mentoring network of 8,000 alumnae/i.
enter the site : http://www.vassar.edu
College
College (Latin collegium) is a term most often used today to denote an educational institution. More broadly, it can be the name of any group of colleagues (see, for example electoral college, College of Arms, College of Cardinals). Originally, it meant a group of persons living together under a common set of rules (con- = "together" + leg- = "law" or lego = "I choose"); indeed, some colleges call their members "fellows". The precise usage of the term varies among English-speaking countries.
United Kingdom
British usage of the word "college" remains the loosest, encompassing a range of institutions:
Schools
Certain private schools, known as "Public" schools in England, for children such as Eton College and Winchester College.[1]
Further Education
In general use, a college is an institution between secondary school and university, either a sixth form college or a college of further education and adult education which were usually called technical colleges. Recently, however, with the phasing out of polytechnical colleges the term has become less clear-cut.
Colleges of further education and adult education.
"Sixth form colleges", where students study for A Levels
Higher Education
In relation to universities, the term college normally refers to a part of the university which does not have degree-awarding powers in itself. Degrees are always awarded by universities whereas colleges are institutions or organisations which prepare students for the degree.
In some cases, colleges prepare students for the degree of a university of which the college is a part (eg colleges of the University of London, University of Cambridge, etc.) In other cases, colleges are independent institutions which prepare students to sit as external candidates at other universities (e.g. many higher education colleges and university colleges).
The constituent parts of collegiate universities, especially referring to the independent colleges that make up the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London
The constituent parts of collegiate universities which provide accommodation and pastoral services at St Andrews and Durham.
The constituent parts of collegiate universities, such as Lancaster and York and Kent.
Some universities, such as Imperial College London, which is a university in its own right. Also University College London and King's College London, which are federal colleges of the University of London but are also de facto universities in their own right as they can award their own degrees.
A name given to large groupings of faculties or departments, notably in the University of Edinburgh, and in the future, under restructuring plans, the University of Birmingham.
University colleges — independent higher education institutions that award degrees from a university.
Professional Bodies
Professional associations such as the Royal College of Organists, the Royal College of Surgeons and other various Royal Colleges.
[edit] Law Courts
The College of Justice or Court of Session of Scotland
United States
Agnes Scott CollegeMain article: Higher education in the United States
In American English, the word, in contrast to its many and varied British meanings, often refers to liberal arts colleges that provide education primarily at the undergraduate level. It can also refer to schools which offer a vocational, business, engineering, or technical curriculum. The term can either refer to both a self-contained institution that has no graduate studies or to the undergraduate school of a full university (i.e., that also has a graduate school). In popular American usage, the word "college" is the generic term for any post-secondary undergraduate education. Americans go to "college" after high school, regardless of whether the specific institution is formally a college or a university, and the word and its derivatives are the standard terms used to describe the institutions and experiences associated with American post-secondary undergraduate education.
Occidental College, a top American liberal arts collegeColleges vary in terms of size, degree, and length of stay. Two-year colleges offer the Associates degree (A.A.) and four-year colleges offer the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or Bachelor of Sciences (B.S.) degree. These are usually primarily undergraduate institutions, although some might have limited programs at the graduate level.
Four-year institutions in the U.S. which emphasize the liberal arts are liberal arts colleges. These colleges traditionally emphasize interactive instruction (although research is still a component of these institutions). Examples include Grove City College in Pennsylvania, Ramapo College of New Jersey and Wheaton College in Illinois. If not associated with a university, they are often categorized as residential and generally have smaller enrollment, class size, and teacher-student ratios than universities. These colleges often encourage a high level of teacher-student interaction at the center of which are classes taught by full-time faculty rather than graduate student TAs (who sometimes teach the classes at Research I and other universities). The colleges are either coeducational, women's colleges, or men's colleges. Some are historically black colleges. Some are also secular (or not affiliated with a particular religion) while others are involved in religious education. Many are private. Some are public liberal arts colleges. In addition, colleges such as Hampshire College, Pitzer College, Sarah Lawrence College, Bennington College, Marlboro College and New College of Florida offer experimental curriculums.
Boston CollegeOn the other hand, public and private universities are research-oriented institutions which service both an undergraduate and graduate student body. Graduate programs grant a variety of Master's degrees including M.B.A.s or M.F.A.s. The doctorate is the highest academic degree, and the Ph.D. is given in most fields. Medical schools award M.D.s while law schools award the J.S.D. as the highest academic achievement. These institutions usually have a large student body. Introductory seminars can have a class size in the hundreds in some of the larger schools. The interaction between students and full-time faculty can be limited as compared to some liberal arts colleges. At some of the larger universities some undergraduate classes are taught by graduate student TAs.
At the same time, some American universities, such as Boston College, Dartmouth College, the College of Charleston and The College of William & Mary, have retained the term "college" in their names for historical reasons or because of an undergraduate focus, although they offer higher degrees. This problem led, in part, to the threatened lawsuit between Yale College Wrexham (equivalent to an American "high school") and Yale University, the latter claiming trademark infringement.[citation needed] As of 2003, there were 2,474 four-year colleges and universities in the United States.[2][3]
Usage of the terms varies among the states, each of which operates its own institutions and licenses private ones. In 1996 for example, Georgia changed all of its four-year colleges to universities, and all of its vocational technology schools to technical colleges. (Previously, only the four-year research institutions were called universities.) Other states have changed the names of individual colleges, many having started as a teachers' college or vocational school (such as an A&M — an agricultural and mechanical school) that ended up as a full-fledged state university.
It should be noted, too, that "university" and "college" do not exhaust all possible titles for an American institution of higher education. Other options include "institute" (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), "academy" (United States Military Academy), "union" (Cooper Union), "conservatory" (New England Conservatory), and "school" (Juilliard School), although these titles are only for their official names. In colloquial use, they are still referred to as "college" when referring to their undergraduate studies.
The term college is also, as in the United Kingdom, used for a constituent semi-autonomous part of a larger university but generally organized on academic rather than residential lines. For example, at many institutions, the undergraduate portion of the university can be briefly referred to as the college (such as The College of the University of Chicago, Harvard College at Harvard, or Columbia College at Columbia) while at others each of the faculties may be called a "college" (the "college of engineering", the "college of nursing", and so forth). There exist other variants for historical reasons; for example, Duke University, which was called Trinity College until the 1920s, still calls its main undergraduate subdivision Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. Some American universities, such as Princeton, Rice, and Yale do have residential colleges along the lines of Oxford or Cambridge, but the name was clearly adopted in homage to the British system.[citation needed] Unlike the Oxbridge colleges, these residential colleges are not autonomous legal entities nor are they typically much involved in education itself, being primarily concerned with room, board, and social life. At the University of California, San Diego and the University of California, Santa Cruz, however, each of the residential colleges do teach its own core writing courses and has its own distinctive set of graduation requirements.
The origin of the U.S. usage
The founders of the first institutions of higher education in the United States were graduates of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. The small institutions they founded would not have seemed to them like universities — they were tiny and did not offer the higher degrees in medicine and theology. Furthermore, they were not composed of several small colleges. Instead, the new institutions felt like the Oxford and Cambridge colleges they were used to — small communities, housing and feeding their students, with instruction from residential tutors (as in the United Kingdom, described above). When the first students came to be graduated, these "colleges" assumed the right to confer degrees upon them, usually with authority -- for example, the College of William and Mary has a Royal Charter from the British monarchy allowing it to confer degrees while Dartmouth College has a charter permitting it to award degrees "as are usually granted in either of the universities, or any other college in our realm of Great Britain."
Contrast this with Europe, where only universities could grant degrees. The leaders of Harvard College (which granted America's first degrees in 1642) might have thought of their college as the first of many residential colleges which would grow up into a New Cambridge university. However, over time, few new colleges were founded there, and Harvard grew and added higher faculties. Eventually, it changed its title to university, but the term "college" had stuck and "colleges" have arisen across the United States.
Eventually, several prominent colleges/universities were started to train Christian ministers. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Brown all started to train preachers in the subjects of Bible and theology. However, now these universities teach theology as a more academic than ministerial discipline.
With the rise of Christian education, renowned seminaries and Bible colleges have continued the original purpose of these universities. Criswell College and Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas; Southern Seminary in Louisville; Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois; and Wheaton College and Graduate School in Wheaton, Illinois are just a few of the institutions that have influenced higher education in Theology in Philosophy to this day.
Origin of U.S. State Colleges: The Morrill Act
In addition to private colleges and universities, the U.S. also has a system of government funded, public universities, also, in many cases, known as State Colleges. This system arose in order to make higher education more easily accessible to the citizenry of the country, specifically to improve agricultural systems by providing training and scholarship in the production and sales of agricultural products,[4] and to provide formal education in “…agriculture, home economics, mechanical arts, and other professions that seemed practical at the time.”[5]
In the 1860s, when this act was established, the original colleges on the east coast, primarily those of the Ivy League and several religious based colleges, were the only form of higher education available, and were often confined only to the children of the elite. A movement arose to bring a form of more practical higher education to the masses, as “…many politicians and educators wanted to make it possible for all young Americans to receive some sort of advanced education.”[6] In 1862 Congress passed a measure that “…made it possible for the new western states to establish colleges for the citizens.”.[7] This was extended to allow all states that had remained with the union during the American Civil War, and eventually all states, to establish such institutions.
Most of the colleges established under the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act have since gone on to become full universities. Some are amongst the elite of the world.
Currently until April 27th the Morrill act is on display at Iowa State University in Morrill Hall.
for more enter : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College
United Kingdom
British usage of the word "college" remains the loosest, encompassing a range of institutions:
Schools
Certain private schools, known as "Public" schools in England, for children such as Eton College and Winchester College.[1]
Further Education
In general use, a college is an institution between secondary school and university, either a sixth form college or a college of further education and adult education which were usually called technical colleges. Recently, however, with the phasing out of polytechnical colleges the term has become less clear-cut.
Colleges of further education and adult education.
"Sixth form colleges", where students study for A Levels
Higher Education
In relation to universities, the term college normally refers to a part of the university which does not have degree-awarding powers in itself. Degrees are always awarded by universities whereas colleges are institutions or organisations which prepare students for the degree.
In some cases, colleges prepare students for the degree of a university of which the college is a part (eg colleges of the University of London, University of Cambridge, etc.) In other cases, colleges are independent institutions which prepare students to sit as external candidates at other universities (e.g. many higher education colleges and university colleges).
The constituent parts of collegiate universities, especially referring to the independent colleges that make up the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London
The constituent parts of collegiate universities which provide accommodation and pastoral services at St Andrews and Durham.
The constituent parts of collegiate universities, such as Lancaster and York and Kent.
Some universities, such as Imperial College London, which is a university in its own right. Also University College London and King's College London, which are federal colleges of the University of London but are also de facto universities in their own right as they can award their own degrees.
A name given to large groupings of faculties or departments, notably in the University of Edinburgh, and in the future, under restructuring plans, the University of Birmingham.
University colleges — independent higher education institutions that award degrees from a university.
Professional Bodies
Professional associations such as the Royal College of Organists, the Royal College of Surgeons and other various Royal Colleges.
[edit] Law Courts
The College of Justice or Court of Session of Scotland
United States
Agnes Scott CollegeMain article: Higher education in the United States
In American English, the word, in contrast to its many and varied British meanings, often refers to liberal arts colleges that provide education primarily at the undergraduate level. It can also refer to schools which offer a vocational, business, engineering, or technical curriculum. The term can either refer to both a self-contained institution that has no graduate studies or to the undergraduate school of a full university (i.e., that also has a graduate school). In popular American usage, the word "college" is the generic term for any post-secondary undergraduate education. Americans go to "college" after high school, regardless of whether the specific institution is formally a college or a university, and the word and its derivatives are the standard terms used to describe the institutions and experiences associated with American post-secondary undergraduate education.
Occidental College, a top American liberal arts collegeColleges vary in terms of size, degree, and length of stay. Two-year colleges offer the Associates degree (A.A.) and four-year colleges offer the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or Bachelor of Sciences (B.S.) degree. These are usually primarily undergraduate institutions, although some might have limited programs at the graduate level.
Four-year institutions in the U.S. which emphasize the liberal arts are liberal arts colleges. These colleges traditionally emphasize interactive instruction (although research is still a component of these institutions). Examples include Grove City College in Pennsylvania, Ramapo College of New Jersey and Wheaton College in Illinois. If not associated with a university, they are often categorized as residential and generally have smaller enrollment, class size, and teacher-student ratios than universities. These colleges often encourage a high level of teacher-student interaction at the center of which are classes taught by full-time faculty rather than graduate student TAs (who sometimes teach the classes at Research I and other universities). The colleges are either coeducational, women's colleges, or men's colleges. Some are historically black colleges. Some are also secular (or not affiliated with a particular religion) while others are involved in religious education. Many are private. Some are public liberal arts colleges. In addition, colleges such as Hampshire College, Pitzer College, Sarah Lawrence College, Bennington College, Marlboro College and New College of Florida offer experimental curriculums.
Boston CollegeOn the other hand, public and private universities are research-oriented institutions which service both an undergraduate and graduate student body. Graduate programs grant a variety of Master's degrees including M.B.A.s or M.F.A.s. The doctorate is the highest academic degree, and the Ph.D. is given in most fields. Medical schools award M.D.s while law schools award the J.S.D. as the highest academic achievement. These institutions usually have a large student body. Introductory seminars can have a class size in the hundreds in some of the larger schools. The interaction between students and full-time faculty can be limited as compared to some liberal arts colleges. At some of the larger universities some undergraduate classes are taught by graduate student TAs.
At the same time, some American universities, such as Boston College, Dartmouth College, the College of Charleston and The College of William & Mary, have retained the term "college" in their names for historical reasons or because of an undergraduate focus, although they offer higher degrees. This problem led, in part, to the threatened lawsuit between Yale College Wrexham (equivalent to an American "high school") and Yale University, the latter claiming trademark infringement.[citation needed] As of 2003, there were 2,474 four-year colleges and universities in the United States.[2][3]
Usage of the terms varies among the states, each of which operates its own institutions and licenses private ones. In 1996 for example, Georgia changed all of its four-year colleges to universities, and all of its vocational technology schools to technical colleges. (Previously, only the four-year research institutions were called universities.) Other states have changed the names of individual colleges, many having started as a teachers' college or vocational school (such as an A&M — an agricultural and mechanical school) that ended up as a full-fledged state university.
It should be noted, too, that "university" and "college" do not exhaust all possible titles for an American institution of higher education. Other options include "institute" (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), "academy" (United States Military Academy), "union" (Cooper Union), "conservatory" (New England Conservatory), and "school" (Juilliard School), although these titles are only for their official names. In colloquial use, they are still referred to as "college" when referring to their undergraduate studies.
The term college is also, as in the United Kingdom, used for a constituent semi-autonomous part of a larger university but generally organized on academic rather than residential lines. For example, at many institutions, the undergraduate portion of the university can be briefly referred to as the college (such as The College of the University of Chicago, Harvard College at Harvard, or Columbia College at Columbia) while at others each of the faculties may be called a "college" (the "college of engineering", the "college of nursing", and so forth). There exist other variants for historical reasons; for example, Duke University, which was called Trinity College until the 1920s, still calls its main undergraduate subdivision Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. Some American universities, such as Princeton, Rice, and Yale do have residential colleges along the lines of Oxford or Cambridge, but the name was clearly adopted in homage to the British system.[citation needed] Unlike the Oxbridge colleges, these residential colleges are not autonomous legal entities nor are they typically much involved in education itself, being primarily concerned with room, board, and social life. At the University of California, San Diego and the University of California, Santa Cruz, however, each of the residential colleges do teach its own core writing courses and has its own distinctive set of graduation requirements.
The origin of the U.S. usage
The founders of the first institutions of higher education in the United States were graduates of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. The small institutions they founded would not have seemed to them like universities — they were tiny and did not offer the higher degrees in medicine and theology. Furthermore, they were not composed of several small colleges. Instead, the new institutions felt like the Oxford and Cambridge colleges they were used to — small communities, housing and feeding their students, with instruction from residential tutors (as in the United Kingdom, described above). When the first students came to be graduated, these "colleges" assumed the right to confer degrees upon them, usually with authority -- for example, the College of William and Mary has a Royal Charter from the British monarchy allowing it to confer degrees while Dartmouth College has a charter permitting it to award degrees "as are usually granted in either of the universities, or any other college in our realm of Great Britain."
Contrast this with Europe, where only universities could grant degrees. The leaders of Harvard College (which granted America's first degrees in 1642) might have thought of their college as the first of many residential colleges which would grow up into a New Cambridge university. However, over time, few new colleges were founded there, and Harvard grew and added higher faculties. Eventually, it changed its title to university, but the term "college" had stuck and "colleges" have arisen across the United States.
Eventually, several prominent colleges/universities were started to train Christian ministers. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Brown all started to train preachers in the subjects of Bible and theology. However, now these universities teach theology as a more academic than ministerial discipline.
With the rise of Christian education, renowned seminaries and Bible colleges have continued the original purpose of these universities. Criswell College and Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas; Southern Seminary in Louisville; Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois; and Wheaton College and Graduate School in Wheaton, Illinois are just a few of the institutions that have influenced higher education in Theology in Philosophy to this day.
Origin of U.S. State Colleges: The Morrill Act
In addition to private colleges and universities, the U.S. also has a system of government funded, public universities, also, in many cases, known as State Colleges. This system arose in order to make higher education more easily accessible to the citizenry of the country, specifically to improve agricultural systems by providing training and scholarship in the production and sales of agricultural products,[4] and to provide formal education in “…agriculture, home economics, mechanical arts, and other professions that seemed practical at the time.”[5]
In the 1860s, when this act was established, the original colleges on the east coast, primarily those of the Ivy League and several religious based colleges, were the only form of higher education available, and were often confined only to the children of the elite. A movement arose to bring a form of more practical higher education to the masses, as “…many politicians and educators wanted to make it possible for all young Americans to receive some sort of advanced education.”[6] In 1862 Congress passed a measure that “…made it possible for the new western states to establish colleges for the citizens.”.[7] This was extended to allow all states that had remained with the union during the American Civil War, and eventually all states, to establish such institutions.
Most of the colleges established under the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act have since gone on to become full universities. Some are amongst the elite of the world.
Currently until April 27th the Morrill act is on display at Iowa State University in Morrill Hall.
for more enter : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College
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