Sherman's Travel

Enjoy the bright lights and bustling casinos of Atlantic City. When you stay for two nights at the Showboat Mardi Gras Casino in February, you’ll get the third night free – which means you’ll pay as little as $36 per night for 3 nights, and save 33%.

The Showboat is a 1300-room, New Orleans-themed hotel and casino located on the famous Atlantic City Boardwalk. Try your luck in the 24-hour casino, walk down the Boardwalk, or relax in your Orleans Deluxe room. Dine at some of the many hotel restaurants including the authentic French Quarter Buffet, which boasts traditional Cajun and Louisiana specialty dishes. Even the House of Blues Atlantic City is located right inside the hotel, which offers nightly entertainment or concerts and an in-house restaurant.

THE VALUE: Save 33% at this Atlantic City Hotel & Casino, where you’ll find no shortage of activities and entertainment.

THE CATCH: Some blackout dates apply.

THE DETAILS: Visit the Showboat Mardi Gras Atlantic City and choose the “Buy 2 Nights, Get the Third Night Free” promotion or enter the code B2GO.

WE’VE GOT MORE: For general trip-planning information, see our Atlantic City guide. Then use our Travel Search price comparison tool to find the lowest rates on flights to Atlantic City.

Having a hard time scoring tickets to the hottest runway shows this season? The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel, on the Upper East Side is there to help you get behind the curtain to see the designers, models, and celebrities this season. From February 15 – 18, the “Inside Haute” experience teams up with Kathleen Beckett, former fashion magazine guru who has worked at Vogue, Glamour, and Elle, to name a few, to take guests on a whirlwind tour of NYFW, dining with designers and attending much-anticipated shows.

For $6,000 per person, fashion mavens can sip on cocktails with Zac Posen at his studio, lunch with Donna Karen, take tea with Nadja Swarovski, enjoy some bubbly with Sophie Theallet at her atelier, go backstage after two top-secret shows to meet the designers, get a private look at the fashion archives at the Met (after the Alexander McQueen exhibit, we know the archives will be full of exquisite pieces), and enjoy lots of champagne, fashion, and glamour.

To book this package, contact Jamie Beck at The Carlyle Hotel, at 212-570-7127. Rooms are not included in the package; rates start at $795 per night.

Be sure to check out our New York City guide, and then use our Travel Search price comparison tool to plan your trip.

THE LUXURY The 338-room, high-end Coeur d’Alene Resort is set on the winter wonderland doorstep of Idaho’s Lake Coeur d’Alene and the Bitterroot Mountains (plus, guests can easily seek out Rocky Mountain powder at the nearby Silver Mountain or Schweitzer ski areas). For the month of February, the property is offering a “Labor of Love” package, which represents some 47 percent in savings. Guests who book the package deal will enjoy overnight accommodations, a $100 dining credit, a wine cellar tour and tasting, two 50-minute spa services (the resort’s spa ranks tops for romance), plus a $50 or $100 voucher (dependent upon room type booked) valid on rebookings at the Coeur d’Alene in April or May.

THE VALUE The “Labor of Love” package, available for the entire month of February, starts at $330/night and offers a 47 percent savings when considering all of the included package components.

THE CATCH Renovations are currently ongoing in the resort’s lobby level so be prepared to pardon their appearance.

THE DETAILS Visit www.cdaresort.com or call 800-688-5253.

Use our Travel Search price comparison tool to find the lowest rates on flights, hotels, cruises, and more travel deals.

The San Juan Water and Beach Club Hotel is already one of Puerto Rico’s trendiest hotels, but with $2.5 million dollars spent on recent renovations, it has even more to offer. Notably new is Mist, a rooftop bar and lounge, to accompany the rooftop pool and views of the steps-away Isla Verde beach. At Mist (pictured) you can sip cocktails and eat Island-Italian-Spanish fusion tapas (made from locally grown ingredients) from the spacious pillowed and cushioned couches that truly deserve the word “lounge.”

If you’d rather consume your food by table and chair, the hotel also has a new restaurant, Zest. Zest, like the neon-blue-lit hotel that contains it, is uniquely decorated, with such design elements as a waterfall by the bar and a simulation of the surface of the ocean on the ceiling. The food, too, is unique: Diverse dishes are locally and sustainably-sourced and scent-infused to take your taste experience to the next level.

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Enjoy the glitz and glamor of Las Vegas this season. Rooms at the Palace Station Hotel and Casino begin from an astounding $20 in February and March – a savings of 40% on current hotel rates.

The Palace Station offers sweeping mountain vistas and panorama views of the Las Vegas strip. Try your luck at the 24-hour casino, soak up the sun at the pool or garden sundeck, and indulge at your choice of eight hotel restaurants and cafes. Live hotel entertainment, including music and comedy, happen almost every night. The hotel also provides free shuttles to the Strip, which is just two miles away.

Stay in a Courtyard Hotel Room, which includes high-speed WiFi, cable TV, comfortable accommodations, and courtyard views.

THE VALUE: Save 40% on current pricing with these online exclusive rates.

THE CATCH: These rates are most widely available in February and early March, so you need to act fast.

THE DETAILS: Visit the Palace Station Hotel and Casino and choose the “Online Exclusive” package.

WE’VE GOT MORE: For general trip-planning information, see our Las Vegas guide. Then use our Travel Search price comparison tool to find the lowest rates on flights to Vegas.

San Diego’s famous for its weather (with average daily temps of about 70 degrees), its zoo (the panda exhibit is downright addictive), and its Top Gun bravado (thanks to the U.S. naval base at Miramar). But this city also makes a picturesque setting for a romantic long weekend filled with beach strolls (or jogs), afternoons of golf or tennis, sipping surprisingly nuanced locally produced wines, and dining on everything from spicy fish tacos to new American gourmet. I have visited San Diego several times, so here are my suggestions for what it offers couples.

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Two hip hotels in Vancouver and New York City are offering guests special access to romance-dedicated staff this February. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, look to OPUS Vancouver’s Cupid Concierge, who’s tasked with bringing customized romantic experiences to guests on request – primed for those who could use a little help ramping up the romance department. Or, bunk down in NYC’s 70 park avenue, where an on-site Romance Sommelier is encouraging ladies to borrow from the British tradition of proposing to their fellas on Leap Day (February 29), with special month-long planning services available to help women pop the question in style. Read more

Two Ritz-Carlton properties have rolled out some sweet-sounding (and free!) amenities for travelers looking to squeeze every last drop out of their vacation experience – quite literally! Guests at the Ritz-Carlton in Palm Beach, Florida, can have their fruit juice dreams whipped up courtesy of the hotel’s newly appointed Citrus Sommelier (pictured at left), who will be serving up juices, smoothies, and fruit juice cocktails at the resort’s Sunday brunch. Or, look to the Ritz-Carlton in St. Thomas, in the U.S.V.I., where guests can handpick fruits on the resort’s 30 fruit-spouting acres of lush tropical goodness. The property’s Garden Concierge is on hand to crack open coconuts for guests on the spot for a refreshing drink of coconut water, or guests can opt to hand-select fruits like papayas and mangoes, which can then be prepared for lip-smacking consumption by the on-site chefs at any hotel restaurant.

The budget-minded brainchild of the sexy Starwood chain, Aloft Hotels has quickly emerged among the industry’s tech-savvy front-runners, offering guests a bevy of in-demand tech amenities (free Wi-Fi in all of its properties; popular social media campaigns; innovative in-room plug-and-play systems that connect guests’ gadgets to the hotels’ flat-screen TVs). Now, several of the brand’s sleek hotels are in the midst of piloting what’s proving to be a wildly successful “Smart Check-In” program, which allows on-the-go guests the freedom to automatically check into their hotel rooms without ever having to make a pesky check-in stop at the front desk.

The program works something like this: Powered by radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, participating guests receive a text message on their mobile devices on the day of their stay, which gives them their room number and immediate and direct access to their rooms, via a keycard (the card is sent out to Select Starwood Preferred Guest members who have enrolled in the pilot program). The SPG/Aloft-branded RFID card can also be used for on-site bar, restaurant, or retail purchases, to boot. Participating properties include Aloft Lexington (MA), Aloft Harlem, Aloft Brooklyn, Aloft Dallas, Aloft Jacksonville Tapestry Park, and Aloft London – check out the program’s promotional video over at YouTube for more deets.

Use our Travel Search price comparison tool to find the lowest rates on flights, hotels, cruises, and more travel deals.

As more resorts and hotels up the ante in luxury travel, guests of Hotel Fouquet’s Barriere now have the option to travel like a VIP jetsetter by hopping in a chopper in Paris and landing in Deauville, a beachside town in northwest France.

Rather than renting a car, guests of the ultra-luxe hotel can escape the hustle and bustle of the city by boarding a private helicopter for the a 45-minute ride to Deauville. The town offers visitors boutique shopping, gambling at Casino Barriere, and sunny beachside strolls. After a day at the beach, jet back to Paris for a luxurious night at the five-star hotel.

The offer – valid until December 26, 2012, and priced at about $6,432 for an Executive Room – includes one night in a room or suite at Hotel Fouquet’s Barriere, transfer via car from the hotel to the Paris Heliport, round-trip helicopter transport to Deauville, and a beach picnic prepared by an award-winning chef. A VIP welcome and breakfast at the Hotel Fouquet’s Barriere is also included.

For more trip-planning information, see our France guide, then use our Travel Search price comparison tool to find the lowest rates on flights, hotels, cruises, and more travel deals.