Only The Best Travel
When tipping, will not neglect the folks who clean your area. getty What is the normal tip for a bellman, room assistance or valet? Inquire 10 persons and you may well get 10 answers. “Tipping etiquette is extremely distinct from continent to continent, and from …
Editor’s Notice: Indication up for Unlocking the Globe, CNN Travel’s weekly publication. Get news about locations opening, inspiration for long run adventures, as well as the hottest in aviation, foods and consume, where to remain and other journey developments. CNN — This was a negative, …
As temperatures fall and snowflakes tumble in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, views may perhaps change to a toasty tropical vacation getaway. The new 12 months delivers new alternatives for upscale lodging on Mexico’s Yucatan coast, in the Caribbean Islands, and in Central American international locations that border the chic Caribbean Sea.
When this is by no suggests an exhaustive checklist of new accommodations opening in the place in 2023, here’s a handful of resorts — in no specific order — that have us excited about frothy drinks, toes in the sand, and expansive ocean sights in the coming months.
Bar Paul at Goldwynn Vacation resort & Residences
Photograph credit rating: Goldwynn Resort & Residences
In February 2023, Goldywnn Vacation resort & Residences opens on a stretch of Cable Beach front in Nassau, The Bahamas. As Nassau’s to start with boutique beachfront resort, it provides website visitors modern studio, one-, two- and 3-bed room suites with golfing study course or ocean sights. The signature restaurant OIA fuses Mediterranean and Peruvian flavors, even though casually sophisticated Amara delivers worldwide tapas and treats by the infinity pool. There’s also a full-provider spa and personalised butler provider in pick out suite classes.
Kao Kamasa Spa at Kimpton Grand Roatan Vacation resort & Spa
Photograph credit score: Kimpton Grand Roatan Vacation resort & Spa
Scheduled to open in the summer of 2023, the Kimpton Grand Roatan Resort & Spa is a finish renovation and expansion of the previous Grand Roatan Resort. It has 126 subtle guest rooms, inclusive of 43 suites, 7 of which have balcony plunge swimming pools overlooking the Caribbean Sea. The beachfront resort will have Kimpton-signature features and guest benefits this sort of as an night social hour and pet-friendly policies.
The resort’s Kao Kamasa Spa (Pesh for “White City”) gives the ultimate in destination wellness with non-public procedure rooms and bungalows for innovative and recharging products and services. The Pesh are considered to be the authentic inhabitants of Honduras’ Bay Islands and even now exist in little numbers on the mainland. The resort has intends to teach about this indigenous individuals group by exposing spa site visitors to the culture as a result of Pesh artifact replicas, artwork, procedure names, and descriptions.
Beachfront SkyPool Suites at Sandals Dunn’s River struggling with the Caribbean Sea
Photo credit score: Sandals Resorts International
Longtime followers of all-inclusive, adults-only Sandals Resorts might recall this home: Sandals Dunn’s River in Ocho Rios. It was a Sandals hotel in the early 1990s, then operated below an additional manufacturer for a while, and now it’s back again less than the Sandals portfolio. Following a prime-to-base renovation, the new Sandals vacation resort is set to debut in Might 2023. Guest rooms include Beachfront SkyPool Suites, which attribute glass panels spanning the duration of oceanfront balconies. The Coyaba Sky Rondoval Villas have personal soaking tubs, an outsized swim-up pool, and an open up-air rooftop terrace.
Sandals Dunn’s River has 12 places to eat, but if that is not sufficient, friends have complimentary trade privileges with the close by Sandals Ochi, so you can enjoy that resort’s swimming pools, places to eat, and bars at no excess value. Sandals Dunn’s River also contains complimentary green expenses at a spectacular 18-hole training course that rises 700 toes earlier mentioned sea amount in the lush hills of Ocho Rios.
Kanai is the most recent luxury growth to debut on Mexico’s Riviera Maya in between Puerto Morelos and Playa del Carmen. The sustainably concentrated gated local community is established amid a jungle and mangrove reserve. It is household to the upscale Etéreo, Auberge Resorts Collection, and now The St. Regis Kanai Vacation resort, Riviera Maya is scheduled to open up in early 2023. Featuring signature St. Regis services, the house has a spa, physical fitness center, spouse and children and adults-only pools, and eating venues that include things like Chaya, whose menu characteristics dishes with Eastern Mediterranean flair, and Toro, which focuses on Latin American delicacies.
Rooftop lounge at Tricks Effect Isla Mujeres
Photo credit history: Secrets Impact Isla Mujeres
Perched on an island cliff, the all-inclusive, older people-only Insider secrets Impression Isla Mujeres is established to make its debut in March 2023, with 125 luxury suites set on a pristine strip of white-sand beach front. All rooms have minibars that are refreshed daily and some have hot tubs. Eat and drink your way by way of 8 different dining establishments and 9 bars. Secrets Spa has 6 procedure rooms, like a few couples’ rooms, as well as a hydrotherapy circuit, sauna, and steam area.
Salted Rim Lobby Bar at Margaritaville Island Reserve Riviera Maya
Picture credit: Margaritaville Island Reserve Riviera Maya
The Margaritaville brand name continues to develop its roster of resorts with the older people-only, all-inclusive Margaritaville Island Reserve Riviera Maya slated to open up in early 2023. The Margaritaville home sits on a pristine beach in close proximity to Puerto Morelos with incredible views of the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea. The upscale coastal retreat has 355 suites nine places to eat and bars, like Mexico’s very first and only LandShark brewery three swimming swimming pools and the 10,000-square-foot St. Someplace Spa with health and fitness heart.
Thatched-roof foyer at Margaritaville Beach Resort, Ambergris Caye
Picture credit history: Margaritaville Seashore Vacation resort, Ambergris Caye
Family-welcoming Margaritaville Beach Vacation resort, Ambergris Caye is an additional new presenting from Jimmy Buffet’s empire, scheduled to open in mid-March 2023. It options just 55 spacious suites with 1- and two-bed room configurations, a restaurant and two bars, two swimming swimming pools, and a St. Somewhere spa. Arrive by private boat transport to the resort just north of San Pedro in Ambergris Caye, house to the second-biggest coral reef in the earth. If your trip plans require any Margaritaville places, be confident to indication up for the free loyalty method Margaritaville Perks.
Folks preparing for festivities this year are urged to program for wintertime weather conditions and hope delays though traveling on point out highways, waterways or railways. 1 way to assist assure vacation magic isn’t dimmed by delays is to check with the Washington Condition Division …
Are you travelling to the mountains in wintertime? In this article are some tips that will preserve you harmless and healthful Wintertime calls for travelling, to the mountains if you want to witness snow, and seashores if you want to escape the chilly temperature. The …
Over two years ago, Vantage Deluxe World Travel promised Sethu Krishnan a $7,443 refund for a cruise he canceled. But the company never actually sent the money. Instead, the tour operator sent excuse after excuse about the missing refund.
Eventually, and just like hundreds of other Vantage customers, Krishnan reached the end of his patience. He’s hoping TPG can help retrieve his money from the noncommittal tour operator.
Here’s his frustrating tale.
For more cruise news, reviews and tips, sign up for TPG’s cruise newsletter.
In fall 2019, Krishnan and his wife began planning a cruise with their favorite tour operator, Vantage Deluxe World Travel.
“This was to be our fifth trip with Vantage,” Krishnan told me. “Before the pandemic, this company was excellent, and we always enjoyed their tours.”
The Krishnans chose a 14-day Portugal, Spain and Douro River cruise at a total cost of $13,572. They also purchased the Platinum Travel Protection offered by Vantage and underwritten by Trip Mate for $1,350. That policy provides a cancel-for-any-reason waiver, which the couple found appealing.
Under that policy, the Krishnans would receive a full cash reimbursement if specific events named in the waiver forced them to cancel the cruise. These events are called named perils. If the cancellation was caused by any other reason not named in the policy, the couple would receive reimbursement in the form of a future travel credit with Vantage.
Throughout the winter, the Krishnans happily looked forward to their springtime cruise. That is, until February 2020. That’s when much of the world became aware that a global health crisis was brewing.
Sign up for our daily newsletter
On March 7, 2020, amid growing concerns about the possible pandemic, the Krishnans canceled their cruise.
“The cruise was scheduled for May 2020, so we were about 67 days out,” Krishnan explained. “Since we had purchased cancel-for-any-reason travel protection, we weren’t concerned about the penalty.”
Unfortunately, Krishnan was about to discover that his Platinum Travel Protection didn’t provide the travel insurance coverage he was hoping it did.
When Krishnan canceled the cruise, Vantage instructed him to file a claim with Trip Mate. He quickly did that, citing concerns about the coronavirus as the reason for the cancellation. Just as swiftly, Trip Mate rejected his claim.
“Trip Mate denied our claim because fear of the coronavirus was not a covered reason for cancellation [that would lead to a cash refund],” Krishnan explains.
On the day the couple canceled their cruise, they were in a 40{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} penalty phase. Vantage would only refund the Krishnans $7,443 in cash. As a result of the cancel-for-any-reason Platinum Protection, the balance of what they paid would be returned in the form of a $6,158 future travel credit with Vantage.
Within weeks, Vantage sent confirmation of the future travel credit and a promise that the $7,443 would soon follow. But by that time, the World Health Organization had declared a global pandemic, and the cruise industry had been completely shut down. That closure forced the cancellation of thousands of cruises and immediately put the entire industry in financial peril.
The Krishnans’ cash refund was not going to come through anytime soon.
Throughout the pandemic, Krishnan kept up a vigilant pursuit of his refund. He consistently called and wrote to Vantage asking for updates. Each time he reminded the company of the $7,443 it owed him. And each time, the customer service agent would thank him for his patience and remind him that the global pandemic was preventing the company from processing refunds at that time.
But after one year with no sign of his refund, he was running out of that patience. And when the cruise industry began setting sail again, he let Vantage know he was done waiting.
In October 2021, Vantage sent Krishnan what, on the surface, appeared to be encouraging news about his refund. At that time, a senior customer service agent informed him he would finally receive his money in eight to 10 weeks. But once again, it turned out to be an empty promise.
In early 2022, Krishnan once again pushed the company for answers about his missing refund and pointed out that the pandemic appeared to be winding down. Therefore, he told Vantage, it was time to give back his money.
Vantage returned his email with yet another standard message stating, “Thanks for your patience” and an acknowledgment that their refund processing was “slightly delayed.”
Then in May 2022, he received another unusual explanation for the delay. Not only was the eight to 10-week processing promise out the window, but inexplicably, the timeline for the refund had been extended into the “unknown.”
“Dear Mr. Krishnan,
Unfortunately, recent world events have caused us to once again redeploy our team to handle time-sensitive trip issues, operational challenges and an unexpectedly large number of inquiries requesting updates / changes to existing itineraries. As a result, we are once again unable to provide a timeline on when we will be able to process your refund request.
Kind regards,
Mira Delgado, Vantage Deluxe World Travel”
It was becoming clear to Krishnan that he was never going to see his $7,443.
To say that pursuing his Vantage refund consumed much of Krishnan’s time during the past 27 months is an understatement. But sending emails, making phone calls and reading through the many complaints about Vantage on the BBB (where it holds a one-star overall review) wasn’t getting him any closer to his refund.
Not knowing where else to turn, he sent a plea to The New York Times and asked for their assistance in exposing the company.
“Most of the customers of Vantage are retirees on a fixed income. They are being ripped off by the company’s terms and conditions regarding refunds, cancellations and travel protection. I appreciate your help in making the people aware of the predatory policies.”
Shortly after Krishnan sent his letter, he read an article in the New York Times’ “Tripped Up” column about another Vantage customer’s frustrating refund crusade. In that article, TPG’s senior cruise writer Ashley Kosciolek provided some expert insight into the problem with Vantage.
When Krishnan reached the end of the article, he was disappointed but not surprised to read that even the New York Times could not help secure a refund for a Vantage customer.
Still wanting to shine more light on Vantage and its refusal to send promised refunds to its customers, Krishnan sent a request directly to Ashley.
“I am a Vantage customer waiting for a refund,” Krishnan told Ashley. “I would appreciate your help in making customers aware of Vantage Travel’s unethical practices.”
Thanks to Ashley, Krishnan’s request for help landed in my email box.
The pandemic certainly hit the cruise industry hard, and many companies did not survive. Other travel providers just barely made it. Vantage would appear to be one of those companies.
As a consumer advocate, I’ve responded to hundreds of emails from frustrated Vantage customers since the beginning of the pandemic.
All of these formerly loyal Vantage customers have similar stories to tell, with slight variations. Some, like Krishnan, preemptively canceled their tours before the pandemic forced Vantage to cancel them itself. The cancellation terms of his contract and the Platinum Travel Protection are clear: On the date the couple canceled, they cited a fear of COVID-19 as the reason. That meant Vantage owed them a 60{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} cash refund and a 40{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} future travel voucher.
But many other Vantage customers did not cancel their trips. They waited it out, assuming that if the tour operator canceled the cruise first, it would owe 100{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} refunds to its customers.
At least that’s how things worked before the pandemic.
However, when Vantage had to cancel all its scheduled tours after the pandemic was declared in March 2020, the company automatically issued future travel credits to most of its customers instead of refunding them.
Still other Vantage customers found themselves booked on new future trips without even the slightest consultation from the company. As I discussed on ABC News, Vantage claimed it hadn’t canceled any trips – it had only postponed them. So, the company reasoned, it didn’t owe its guests refunds, but it would allow the traveler to rebook an alternative trip if the one Vantage had automatically bestowed on them wasn’t to their liking.
Vantage had bent the definition of the word canceled to an unrecognizable state. The company informed its customers it was no longer able to operate their tours as scheduled. That’s a cancellation in most people’s books – but suddenly Vantage was calling it a postponement and asking its customers to let their funds ride with the company.
In the fall of 2020, I reached out to Vantage to find how it justified this new interpretation of the word canceled, emailing my contact there the following:
“Our team is trying to figure out what’s happening here. Did Vantage change the terms of their contracts after the pandemic began? Is there something in the Vantage contract that allows Vantage to cancel the tours and keep the guest’s payment indefinitely?
A postponement is a cancellation, no matter what label you place on it.”
In response to that email, Vantage assigned an executive to review all the complaints piling up in our advocacy team’s inbox.
Gradually, over many months, as the company began operating tours again, refunds started to appear. The process is still slow going, but when Ashley forwarded Krishnan’s complaint to me, I was hopeful that we could finally end his seemingly endless battle with Vantage.
When I went through the many pages of correspondence with Vantage that Krishnan had accumulated over the past two years, I shared his frustration. He had politely and consistently asked for this money back, but each response from the company contained the empty promise that his refund would soon be processed.
Vantage owed him $7,443, and he had waited long enough. I sent his case over to our executive contact at Vantage to see why Krishnan was still waiting after all this time.
Within a few days, Krishnan finally received his long-awaited refund.
“Good Morning, Michelle!
Thank you for circling back to me on this one. I do come bearing some good news! Our Accounting Department has processed the Krishnans’ refund today to their AMEX ending in **** for $7,443.20.”
Krishnan is thrilled that he can finally put this struggle to rest. But he remains concerned for the many other Vantage customers he knows are still waiting for their refunds.
“Thank you for your help,” Krishnan told me. “I sincerely hope Vantage will do the right thing and make the valid refunds to all customers.”
That’s a hope that we share.
If you or someone you know is still waiting for a pandemic-era refund from Vantage or any other tour operator, there are a few things you can do to nudge the company along.
Unfortunately, during the pandemic, many travelers preemptively canceled their cruises and other tours before the companies officially canceled. That was a mistake for many of these consumers. If a company cancels your trip, in most cases, it owes you a full refund. But if you cancel first, the cancellation terms of your contract will dictate your refund eligibility.
And remember that even if you are owed a refund, it will be processed back to the original form of payment. So if you paid for the trip with travel credits, you would not receive a cash refund. The first step in obtaining your missing refund is to make sure you will actually be eligible for one, though.
If you’ve been struggling to get a travel provider to process a refund you know it owes you, your next step is to file a complaint with your state’s attorney general. You can also file a complaint in the state where the company is based. In Vantage’s case, that’s Massachusetts. Here’s how to find your state’s attorney general.
Depending on the value of your missing funds, you may be able to file a small claims case against the company. This is a much easier process than filing a regular lawsuit. Of course, collecting a small claims award can also be tricky. Your state attorney general’s office should be able to give you guidance that pertains to your state. If the value of your claim exceeds the small claims limits, you can visit the American Bar Association to get a legal referral and determine if and how to pursue a lawsuit.
When a company has a lengthy list of refunds to process, the squeaky wheel will often get the grease (or, in this case, the refund). If you know you’re owed a refund, don’t give up. Consistently send the company reminders and let their team know you’re not going away. By politely and frequently sending those reminders, you just might find that your request rises to the top of that refund list.
The pandemic created unimaginable problems for travel providers around the world. Many of these formerly well-respected companies were blindsided by the sudden shutdown of their industry, along with their sudden inability to conduct normal business. Unfortunately, consumers who had cruises and other prepaid vacations scheduled as we entered that dark time, have shared the financial impact.
As the travel industry slowly returns to normal most reputable companies are doing their best to return all the funds that are owed to their customers. Vantage is one of those companies that is hoping to regain the trust of its loyal customers.
If you’re one of those travelers still waiting – and waiting – for your promised refund from Vantage or any other tour operator, cruise line, hotel, car rental company, or vacation rental agency send your request for help to tips@thepointsguy.com, and I’ll be happy to help you get your money back into your pocket, too.
